QUICKSILVER: The Chronicles of Pietro Maximoff
by DarkCrono15
Summary: This is the epic tale of the mutant speedster, Quicksilver! Follow Pietro's story and experience the all the major events of his life, both heroic and villainous. Hopefully this fanfiction will have a little something for everyone! I do not own Marvel, but I wish I did. Please read and review!
1. Runaways Part I

**A disclaimer from the Author**

As you already know, I do not own Marvel, Quicksilver, or any of the franchise's characters that will appear in this story. Quicksilver is my favorite character in the Marvel universe and I wanted to do a story in his honor. In preparation for this fanfiction series, I read the biography of Quicksilver on the Marvel website and Wikipedia. The chronology of events that make up the outline of each chapter are not my original ideas, however I will be taking creative liberties in the retelling of them. While I may create characters to enhance my take on Quicksilver's story, if you notice any familiar heroes or villains, they are Marvel's…not mine. With that said, the purpose of this story is for my own entertainment (as I love writing and Marvel is a great universe to have fun with!) and hopefully your entertainment as well.

* * *

**CHAPTER 1**

**Runaways Part I**

It was dark and a little too quiet on this one particular evening, deep in the forest of Mount Wundagore, located in Transia, Europe. Most mountains were known for being dry, barren, and full of nothing more than dust and rocks. Wundagore Mountain, however, never lacked lush vegetation and was one of the finer and more mysterious natural wonders of Europe. Sharing the mountain with its neighboring countries, Transylvania, Romania, and Serbia, Transia was a small country, having only one town called East Transia. Located within the monstrous Wundagore Mountain, were several small villages. Surrounding these little places of society, were a few even smaller camps of Gypsies, known as the Rom.

In one of these tiny camps, outside of a small unnamed village on Mount Wundagore, two fourteen year old twins sat around a camp fire with gypsies. Both the children who were dressed in rags, a boy and a girl, were orphans. Besides from each other, the wandering camp of gypsies was the closest thing these kids had to a family. With that said, neither ever felt like it was really that close to what an actual family was.

The camp of eight to ten people huddling around a caravan didn't do much of anything that families would do. They ate together when and if there was food available, and that was just about the only communal thing these folks did. Often the twins, Pietro and Wanda, would observe a gypsy burning incense and mumbling some kind of strange chant. If they weren't doing that, they were high on a local herb staring absently into the fire thinking of wherever their warped mind took them. The camp wasn't perfect, or even desirable, but it was the kids' home.

The twins' father, Django Maximoff had found them fourteen years ago abandoned in the woods and brought them back to the camp. Django and his wife, Marya raised the Pietro and Wanda, that is when they had time. Django and Marya were also the leaders of the camp, and the food providers. Often they were out pilfering villages late in the evenings and when they returned, the two retired to their tent to either sleep or keep to themselves. Their instruction and rules to the two children was very simple: Don't bother anyone, and don't do anything dangerous.

Nobody was bothered by this fact, but it was clear that Django and Marya weren't the real parents of the only two adolescents in the camp, as they looked nothing like the teenagers. Both parents were dark skinned and had jet black hair. Pietro and Wanda had somewhat pale white skin and deep blue eyes. Wanda had long, flowing, and beautiful brown hair while Pietro had short, and often unkempt, white hair. In many ways, not just considering physical appearances, the twins were the opposite.

"It's taking them forever!" Pietro complained as he threw a stick into the fire as he stood up and started to pace, impatiently.

"Would you calm down?" Wanda spoke calmly, trying hard to mask her annoyance of her brother. "So it's taking them a little longer than usual to bring back food….maybe the village they went is farther away than usual."

"Maybe..." Pietro considered this fact but then shook his head. "But it never takes them _this_ long…this is like double, no triple, how many hours mom and dad are gone. And I'm starving."

"She's right you know." A stoned gypsy leaning against an old tree spoke in a mellow and soft tone. "You're always in such a rush boy. Take it easy, sit down and enjoy the breeze of wind and this fine night we have upon us. You know, each night is only alive once in our lives, then it's gone forever. Enjoy them while they last."

"Whatever that means…" Pietro and Wanda exchanged looks of awkwardness regarding the spaced out man full of nonsense. "Besides, I wouldn't always be in such a rush if everyone wasn't so slow."

Suddenly Wanda, Pietro, and the rest of the company turned to see a rustling through the dense bushes behind them. After a moment or two of hearing footsteps rushing towards them, Django and Marya lept through the bushes carrying two large sacks of food, and looking somewhat frazzled.

"Finally!" Pietro perked up seeing bags full of food. "It took you guys long enough! What'd you bring us?"

"Well there is good news and bad news…" Django spoke, his voice trembling a little bit with nervousness.

"The good news is we definitely grabbed enough food to last us a few weeks…" Marya continued, "But…"

"The bad news is there is a small mob of angry visitors who are not too far behind us." Django finished his wife's sentence. "So now would be a great time for us all to pack up and start moving to another camp."

"What, we're leaving already?" Another stoned gypsy sitting across the fire from Wanda moaned. "Aww man, I'm so comfortable here…and I got some things sitting in my stomach that may make it hard to move anywhere quickly…if you know what I mean."

"C'mon man, didn't you hear my dad?" Pietro moved around the fire to start picking up the half baked man, motioning his sister to come help him lift the heavy fellow. "We're going to have very unfriendly company here in a little bit, and everyone knows that Wundagore village people hate us nomads…For no understandable reason."

"I think they frown on the fact that we like to help ourselves to their food." Wanda interjected, as the two finally got the man to his feet.

"It's too late, they're here!" A lady's voice came from behind the caravan, followed the sound of an angry crowd rushing into the camp site.

Several angry townsfolk with various weapons from carving knives and pitchforks, to a rolling pin and a large fish began to attack the gypsies ruthlessly. Pietro and Wanda moved backwards in the shade of the woods in horror, as they watched their pseudo-family of ten get battered by the enraged mob.

"You no good gypsies!" Someone yelled as he bashed one of the men in the face with a sledge hammer. "You always just help yourself to whatever you want in our towns, don't you? Well it doesn't feel so good now does it!"

"Over there!" A woman who just smacked a gypsy with a frying pan yelled as she pointed at Pietro and Wanda, "Those two runts are hiding! Someone get them!"

A large angry fat man carrying a torch and a very negative attitude growled as he rushed towards the children. As he came closer her started to laugh with malicious intent as Pietro and Wanda held each other and stepped backward in fear. Suddenly, Django leapt from the side to tackle the large man with the torch. As the two men fell to the ground, the torch caught many leaves on fire. The burning leaves quickly began to spread, igniting trees and even the wooden gypsy caravan. The children now gasped in fear as they looked around at the forest being destroyed. Django sharping looked at his children and yelled.

"What are you two doing? Don't you know what's good for you! Run, get out of here! Pietro! Take your sister and RUN!"

Pietro grabbed Wanda's hand and started to move backwards. "Come on Wanda, let's get out of here!"

"Are you crazy?" Wanda cried, tears filled her eyes as she saw this terrible sight. "What about…"

"You know the rules…" Pietro interrupted his sister. "In times of trouble, it's every man woman and child for themselves! Now, we have to go!"

Pietro yanked his sisters arm as he started to run deep in the forest. Wanda followed, now not resisting at all. The two teenagers could hear three or four village people following them cursing at the two and promising their upcoming deaths. As the angry mob sounded as if they getting closer, Pietro felt himself moving faster and faster. He was now running on pure adrenaline and terror.

"Pietro slow down!" Wanda panted as she struggled to keep up with her brother. "I can't…"

"Not the time to complain, sister!" Pietro retorted in between breath, "We have to get out of here!"

"But I can't…keep up!" Wanda spoke as she stumbled on a stump the two ran over.

Pietro stopped as his sister fell on the ground and smacked her head hard against a tree. Pietro cussed as he realized Wanda was now unconscious.

"Wanda, wake up!" Pietro yelled as he gently smacked his sister's face, trying to help her regain consciousness. "This is SO not the time for a nap!"

Hearing angry voices approaching, without a second's thought, Pietro picked up his twin sister's body and threw her over his shoulder. He started to run now, not considering anything other than his and Wanda's survival. Before long, the silver haired boy's feet began to run faster and faster…and faster until Pietro felt the wind brush against his face. He began moving so fast that it seemed as if everything around him was moving in slow motion. In a matter of moments, as the boy picked up speed, he no longer heard the yells of angry villagers. When Pietro finally thought it was safe to stop, he couldn't believe his eyes. Within minutes of running, the boy had rushed through the forest and down the mountain to East Transia. Gently setting his sister down and leaning her against a stone building, the speedster looked around observing the town for the first time. Pietro Maximoff had never ran that fast in his life, and he had never felt so alive.


	2. Runaways Part II

**Chapter 2**

**Runaways Part II**

The next three years moved as quickly as Pietro seem to be able to run. The seventeen year old boy and his sister Wanda moved all about central Europe, doing as they saw fit. It seemed like a lifetime ago that the twins had lived in Transia and the siblings rarely thought back to their days in the Rom camp. Pietro and Wanda stayed near the Mountain for a week after running away from the angry mob, and after hearing no word about or from Django or Marya, assumed their parents to be dead.

Wanda occasionally voiced her concern that they could have done more to save Django and Marya, while Pietro often brushed it off and avoided the subject all together. Ever since the teenage boy had manifested his extraordinary speed, faster than sound itself, Wanda's brother had fully given in to his "hasty" nature. He was still impatient, but now rarely did Pietro have to wait on anything. Wanda tried to be more understanding as to why her brother was always in a rush. From Pietro's perspective, everything moved slower than he did. About a year ago, the boy with white hair explained it to Wanda like this.

"Have you ever waited in line for something and the guy in front of you seemed to take forever? Well, it's like every day for me, and everything I do, is like waiting in that line behind that really slow person."

The past three years had been simple and carefree for Pietro and Wanda. With Pietro's super speed, the two never had to stay in one city in Europe any longer then they wanted to. There was never a shortage of food for the two to share in the markets. Pietro could sneak behind the counter, steal whatever he wanted, and half a mile away, before anything was ever noticed. Wanda had perfected the art of flirting her way out of any situation, allowing her to become a very skilled con-artist as well. She never resented her twin brother for having a special ability that she didn't have. At the same time, the brunette refused to simply live off of Pietro's gifts. She constantly worked to hold her own weight in everything they did. Pietro and Wanda went wherever they wanted, did whatever they wanted, and stayed for however long they wanted. They lived off the land, and for Pietro this was never a problem. After three years, Wanda grew weary of this lifestyle, which led to a very unfortunate event.

* * *

The twins found themselves in a small Transylvanian town. Ever since having to leave Transia, Wanda didn't much care for this area of Europe, but Pietro insisted that they returned as he had a craving for Transylvanian Sausage. Finally his sister gave in to his relocation plan, as the only thing faster than Pietro's feet was how quickly Wanda got annoyed at his super-fast insistence when he wanted something.

While her brother was off helping himself to the best sausage joint in town, Wanda wandered the streets restlessly, growing bored of the endless plains and old-world style cottages that were so common to this area. She sighed with boredom as she thought ahead of the coming days. It was time for a change.

Wanda's reflective moments were interrupted by a white flash of light that brushed past her creating a small gale force and light winds that she was all to used to.

"Good you're back." Wanda spoke as she continued to walk down the seemingly vacant street. "I'm ready to leave this dump and go to a more luxurious area. I was thinking London, maybe Venice you know it's been a while since we've eaten in Naples."

"All those fancy places are too uptight." Pietro replied, as he whirled around Wanda and shoved a large bratwurst towards her face. "Besides, you won't be thinking that once you eat one of these bad boys."

"Get that thing away from me!" Wanda pushed the sausage away, getting more and more agitated with her brother. "I had a salad earlier, and those things make me want to barf it all up. I'm serious Pietro, we always go where you want to go! Don't you get tired of all this moving around?"

Pietro took this moment to try to interject a joke with the hopes of lightening the mood. With light speed, he whirled around Wanda a couple of times and appeared in front of her as he spoke. "Uh, no! Moving around is kind of my thing remember?"

"Ugh!" Wanda felt herself get more agitated than usual, as she stomped the ground and pushed her brother out of the way as she continued to move down the road.

Unknown to the twins, they weren't having this argument as privately as they hoped. Behind a stone cottage one of the sides of the road, a couple townsfolk had gathered as one man had noticed Pietro's amazing movements and called his friends to watch. They stood mesmerized by the visitors, still not entirely sure what they were looking at.

"What's your problem?" Pietro shouted at his sister, his temper now rising.

"My problem is that sometimes you act…" Wanda stammered as she tried to find the right words, not wanting to be too hard on her brother. "Sometimes you act like nothing more than an immature and spoiled child!

As she ended her statement, Wanda swept her arm sideways and her palm pointed to a large old mansion made of logs. Unknown to Wanda, as she was getting angrier in the previous statement, her hand began to glow and a red aura surrounded it. Suddenly, upon calling her brother a child, the abandoned manor ignited in flames. The twins turned and looked at the incredible sight with confusion, horror, and disbelief.

"She's a witch!" One of the townspeople murmured to her group from behind the stone cottage. Upon believing her statement more after it came out of her mouth, the woman cried out in a terrified scream. "SHE'S A WITCH! THEY'RE BOTH WITCHES!"

"What are you talking about?" Pietro protested as the twins noticed the ever growing crowd now surrounding them. "Wanda didn't do that! Are you crazy?"

"I saw it with my own eyes." A man spoke to the crowd, now including police officers who were readying their stun batons. "That boy moves like the wind, and the girl starts fires. They're a danger to us all! They're witches!"

"No wait!" Wanda spoke as she put out her hand to try to convince the people that they were mistaken. As her hand went out, it was once again surrounded by a red aura that released a stream of crimson light that zoomed past the people and hit the stone cottage. The rocks began to crumble and the building quickly tumbled down to nothing but a pile of rubble.

"My house!" a concerned citizen cried out. "That witch destroyed my house, get her!"

The mob began rushing towards Pietro and Wanda. The young girl grabbed her brother's armed and whispered to him, her voice trembling with fear. "Pietro, get us out of here!"

As she held on to Pietro, a red aura now surrounded him. He tried to speed away with his sister, but the adolescent found himself motionless. He whispered back to Wanda. "I…I can't move…Wanda, stop doing whatever it is that you're doing!"

"I don't have any idea what's going on!" Wanda screeched as the mob now was within arms distance of them. She raised her arm that wasn't grabbing Pietro to protect her face and as she gave the motion, the front line of the angry mob surrounding her flew into the air and landed her on their bottoms.

Pietro closed his eyes as he prepared for the worst, and as his eyes were clenched shut he heard the a low resounding sound and suddenly the village people were floating in the air. All the folks were moving their heads around trying to figure out what was going on.

"Wanda put them down!" Pietro spoke. "Or throw them out of the way so we can get out of here….or do something!"

"I…I don't think that's me." Wanda replied, "Or maybe it is…I really don't know anymore."

"These ignorant buffoons are being held by me, young lady." A deep and solemn voice spoke from behind the twins. "As it turns out, each one of them is holding or wearing something that is metallic and thus, they all are held accountable to my mercy. Unfortunately for them, I have no mercy for ants that try to hold power over the gods. Be gone you worthless and petty homo-sapiens!"

With one motion of his hand, the entire mob flew sideways into another stone building, or into each other. The dangerous crowd fell to the ground unconscious. Pietro and Wanda turned now as their eyes fell to their rescuer who floated in the sky surrounded by a purple translucent bubble.


	3. The Brotherhood Part I

**Chapter 3**

**The Brotherhood Part I**

"Okay, you got our attention…" Pietro looked high in the sky to see the man wearing red and purple armor with a purple cape descend down towards them. He had a very odd looking helmet on as well. "So, who are you? And how can you do…whatever it is you just did?"

"I am called Magneto, the Master of Magnetism," The older man replied, "and like the two of you, I am a mutant."

"Mutant?" Pietro repeated in disbelief. "What are you talking about?"

"As I suspected, you two haven't the faintest clue about your abilities and your own biology." Magneto replied. "Perhaps the term Mutant is to ugly of a word to describe what we are…I prefer to consider us Homo-Superiors. You two are among a growing group of people in this world who have special gifts that mere humans do not share, nor do they understand."

"Pietro maybe…" Wanda replied, looking around her at the debris and flames caused by her strange outbreak. "But I hardly consider whatever I just did here a gift."

"My dear," Magneto spoke as he put his hand on Wanda's shoulder. "Never consider power anything BUT a gift. Your abilities may involve more training to control them, as mine once did. What are your names?"

"I'm Pietro and this is my sister Wanda."

"How very Homo-Saipan." Magneto's tone had a sense of disdain in it. "Very well then, Pietro and Wanda. I am putting together a small group of people like us…We live in a world that does not understand those of us with special abilities. Born from that misunderstanding comes fear, and as you just saw with this small minded angry mob, out of fear comes hatred and violence. We are stronger together. I am in need for such skills as you two possess. If you come with me, I promise you will be safe, and you will also be well trained to control and use your abilities far better then you are right now."

"I don't know…" Pietro spoke, cautious of this mysterious man with extraordinary magnetic power, "We've been doing pretty good on our own for the past few years…"

"No, Pietro…" Wanda replied softly and with a hint of fear in her voice. "I think…I think we need to go with Magneto. We owe him a debt of gratitude for saving our lives. Also, I'm changing…I can feel this…energy…in me, and I need to know how to better control it before I do something far worse then I have done today."

"I promise you will not be disappointed." Magneto said with a power hungry smile. "Your destinies are far greater than simply running around in this world run by ants. With me, you can achieve much greater things."

"Alright then, Magneto." Pietro replied, still uncertain about this decision, "We'll go with you."

"Very well then!" Magneto spoke as began to levitate once more. "From this point on, you will no longer be known as Pietro and Wanda, but Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch."

* * *

Pietro and Wanda, now also known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch left Europe that day with Magneto in his magnetic purple ball that took them to New York City, in North America. Upon reaching this new land, which the teenagers only knew from books and movies, Magneto led them to an abandoned warehouse to meet the rest of his team, known as the Brotherhood. The warehouse looked vacant and unused on the outside. Once the three entered the building, it was clear to the twins based on the large amount of technology that this was a very active and in use base of operations for Magneto's team.

Apart from Magneto, there were three other members of the Brotherhood that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch met that day. Each of them were just as unusual as the master of magnetism. Their mutant names were Mystique, Sabertooth, and Toad.

Toad was a short and gross looking man with green hair, green eyes, and very slimy skin. According to Magneto his powers were basically that of a toad. He could jump very high, stick to walls, secrete a toxic goo out of his mouth, and had a very long tongue. None of that grossed Wanda out more than his attitude. From the moment the twins entered the warehouse and met Magneto's, the Toad would constantly hop about her flirting in ways that would make even the dead cringe.

The one they called Sabertooth was a wild and primal animal of a man. He was very large and muscular, with long unkempt light brown hair. His fingernails were sharp, long and unkempt It appeared like the monster of a man had more so claws then hands. Most of the time Sabertooth would wander the warehouse snarling and growling at just about everything. It did not take the twins long to learn that this man had a very strong lust for blood and violence. His mutant powers were not just in his abnormal appearance and strength, but he also had a supernatural regenerative ability. Once, when Pietro asked Magneto why they kept Sabertooth around if he was always such a grump, the Brotherhood leader responded by simply saying: "Because Sabertooth is very hard to kill."

The last mutant in Magneto's team, Mystique, was considered the second in command. She had a very sleek and slender form, with blue skin, short red hair, and cold yellow eyes that seemed to glare at everything she gazed upon. Mystique's mutant power was the ability to shapeshift. The woman also was incredibly cunning and crafty. Her brilliant mind earned her the respect of everyone else on her team, even though she appeared to only respect Magneto.

When they first arrived in the Brotherhood Warehouse, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch did not lead with the best first impression in their initial encounter with the other mutants. Upon entering the building, the three mutants came to meet their leader and the two visitors. Quicksilver was the first to speak, though his quick words were not the wisest.

"Ugh!" Quicksilver was repulsed by the appearance of Toad, Sabertooth, and Mystique. "What are these things?"

"These things!?" Sabertooth growled, "Why you've got some nerve, you skinny little…"

"These things are your new brothers." Magneto replied calmly, interrupting Sabertooth's rage. "Welcome to the Brotherhood."

"I'd love to welcome you, personally, and on a more intimate way." Toad hopped near Wanda, and onto a box where he could shove his face close to her. The 17 year old girl felt as if she was going to barf, as Toad's skin slime dripped onto the crate.

Disgusted by the vile creature, Wanda turned her face away from the nasty sight and waved her hand with the hopes of getting Toad's smell away from her nose. As the Scarlet Witch waved her hand, it was once again surrounded by a red aura and Toad was thrown towards Mystique. Mystique, bored of the new members already, had turned her back to return to what she was doing. She cursed as Toad fell onto her.

"Toad!" Mystique yelled as she kicked the little man off of her.

"They started it!" Toad spoke swiftly, as he greatly feared Mystique's wrath.

"Don't worry Mystique." Sabertooth snarled, "Cause I'm going to finish it!"

As the large man rushed towards the Scarlet Witch with murderous intent, Quicksilver sped in front of Wanda, trying to push her out of the way. The beast collided with Pietro, and grabbed him by the shirt collar and with one hand, threw him into a bunch of wooden empty crates in the side of the room.

Wanda screamed, horrified as she watched her brother get thrown away. Not being able to control her abilities, the crates were enclosed in a red aura, lifted into the air, and hurled at Sabertooth. The mutant bully fell to the ground as he was pelted by massive crates.

Suddenly there was a low reverberating sound as several metal bars formed a wall in between Wanda and Sabertooth, who growled viciously.

"All of you, STOP!" Magneto yelled , silencing the room. He looked at the Scarlet Witch, "and YOU need to calm down!"

Two small metal pipes flew around to where Wanda stood, and bent around the woman's arms, causing her the inability to move. Mystique walked over to Magneto and spoke, now more impressed with his newest recruits.

"So the white haired one is very fast, but what is the story with the crazy girl?" Mystique asked, fascinated with the sight.

"I don't know yet." Magneto spoke as he pondered this question, "But one thing is for sure…That girl is one powerful mutant. With power like that, no foe of ours will have the means necessary to stand in our way."

"If the broad can control it, that is." Mystique spoke sarcastically as she looked at the trapped Wanda.

"Yes, well, I believe our young Scarlet Witch will need some guidance in how to control her abilities, but we can definitely aid her with that." Magneto's face was now filled with an ambitious smile.

* * *

For the next several months the Brotherhood helped Wanda control and be able to freely use her mutant powers, which they now referred to as hexes. The next day after Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch settled in their new home, the Brotherhood Warehouse, Magneto took Wanda to a mutant in a different city that had the power of identifying the ability of any mutant whose hand she touched. This older lady, named Whisper was fascinated with the Scarlet Witch.

"Her powers intrigue me." Whisper spoke as her eyes glimmered with blue light. "At first glance, it appears your Scarlet Witch can alter probability. If there is even the smallest chance of something happening, she can make it happen. But…I am not so sure that her power can be identified as easily as most mutants. I truly have not seen such an enigma since I was able to gleam into the host of the Phoenix Force many years ago. Very intriguing indeed."

Through his training, Magneto helped the Scarlet Witch see that controlling her hexes depended on controlling her emotions. As Wanda further understood the depths of more negative emotions such as fear, anger, and despair, she was able to hex things to do whatever she wanted, when she wanted them to.

Magneto also gave Pietro and Wanda new clothing. He explained to them that in order for the twins to be respected they had to look in a way that acquired respect, either by honor or fear. Quicksilver now wore a one piece outfit that was designed for him to have no resistance when he ran. It was a cyan blue with a white lightning in the middle. Wanda's outfit involved red leather boots, red leather gloves, and a red leather chest-plate like upperbody piece. She also was given a red cape and a red headpiece that looked somewhat like a crown. Magneto told her as he crowned her, "Remember, my Scarlet Witch, you are now the queen of your own destiny. Do not be pushed into submission by the lesser breed."

Finally the day came when Magneto gathered his Brotherhood into a dimly lit room of the warehouse with a large circular table. Each mutant found a seat at the table, which begin to light up as a hologram of New York City appeared in front of them.

"My fellow homo superiors," Magneto spoke as he gazed upon the hologram of New York City. "Our time has come. The moment when we take that which lesser beings have kept from us has begun. I have assembled the perfect team. Strength _(he pointed to Sabertooth)_, Speed, _(to Quicksilver), _Intelligence, _(Mystique)_….under my leadership you will be the harbingers to the new world. A world that is safe for our kind. A world where we are not feared, but respected. A world where we do not live in fear, but we can live as rulers."

"That sounds like a great world!" Toad interrupted with excitement. "Bu err boss… What am I bringing this table, or new world, or whatever…"

"You bring us comic relief and the most unnecessary times…" Magneto spoke, annoyed at Toad's presence and comment.

"He could have said worse…" Toad muttered to himself. "But at least they gave me a chair at the table this time!"

"Now listen carefully," Magneto continued, "And let me reveal to you my master plan that will bring us into this new world."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hello Readers, I hope you have enjoyed the story so far. I wanted to let you know that the mutant briefly mentioned in this story, the Whisper is an original character. I don't intend on using her much more in the story, as she was just a creative way to add depth to the Scarlet Witch, but in case you were thinking "I haven't heard of that Marvel character before!" it's because she doesn't exist. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my novel so far, so if you're comfortable with it, please drop me a review! Thanks and have a great day.


	4. The Brotherhood Part II

**Chapter 4**

**The Brotherhood Part II**

It was a busy day as usual in New York City. Every road was congested with traffic and bustling people in a rush, trying to get wherever they were going, as fast as possible. This was New York routine. What happened next definitely was not part of the normal person's every day routine, and it sent terror across this one particular street. Suddenly rushing people became a crowd of scared people running for their lives.

From a moderately tall building, Sabertooth jumped down to the street and landed on a car, crushing it upon impact. The monster of a man ripped off the car door and threw it towards a terrified mother and daughter, who just barely moved out of the way. Police officers opened fire on the mutant, but their bullets were unable to penetrate Sabertooth's tough skin. He leapt onto one policeman, knocking him out and roared wildly as he picked up another officer and chucked him into two other cops.

Sabertooth's rampage continued, without any worthy opposition for about thirty minutes. As expected, as the brotherhood brute terrorized the streets, finally from the sky a red laser beam of light shot into Sabertooth, knocking him violently into a wall. As the beast-man pushed himself out of the caved in wall of the building, throwing debris to the ground, he looked as his attackers jumped out of their X-jet, known as the Blackbird. Sabertooth growled at the X-men, feeling his excitement for battle grow as the team grew closer.

The one who shot him with the laser was the group's main field authority (under the master leadership of the powerful telepath, Xavier, of course). His name was Cyclops, and he shot powerful optic lasers from his eyes. In fact he couldn't open his eyes without special equipment otherwise the lasers would destroy anything in sight. He wore a visor that had a special kind of glass that could contain the lasers until he wanted them released.

Accompanying Cyclops were three other mutants, Jean Gray, Wolverine, and Beast. Jean Gray was a very powerful mutant with telepathy and telekinesis, which was rare among the mentally gifted mutants. Wolverine was Sabertooth's arch nemesis and rival, and had very similar feral mutations, including the regenerative abilities. Additionally, his exo-skeleton was encased in a rare metal known as Adamantium. He could extend claws out of his hands that were made of this metal, which was his main weapon in battle. Wolverine and Sabertooth had an entire textbook's worth of history, and words can not express the level of hatred they had for each other. Finally Beast was just that, a big, furry blue, muscular, and highly intelligent mutant who was…well, a beast. Compared to Sabertooth especially, and Wolverine, Beast (despite his name) had the most control over his feral nature and often was viewed among the X-men as more of an intellect and pacifist then a raging monster.

"Same story, different day, eh Sabertooth?" Cyclops yelled out as the X-men stepped over the ruin of the street that Sabertooth had caused, moving closer to him. "I'm only going to ask once. Just leave. You know the X-men can stop you by other means, just like we always do."

"I'm not even going to ask." Wolverine growled as he extended his metal claws and rushed towards Sabertooth. "I just want to jump to those other means!"

"Logan, wait!" Jean Gray yelled to Wolverine, as he jumped to tackle Sabertooth.

Sabertooth caught Wolverine as he attempted to tackle the mutant and twirled him around, then tossed his enemy into a pile of trash nearby.

"X-men, get him!" Cyclops said as he opened fire on Sabertooth. The mutant roared in pain as Scott Summers optic lasers hit his body.

Suddenly hopping down to the ground from a nearby street lamp, Toad appeared behind Cyclops. With his quick, long, and slimy tongue, Toad grabbed Cyclops visor off his face and flung it away onto the street. The leader of the X-men's eyes flared with red optic power, and the full force beam pierced through buildings, instantly leveling them. Cyclops struggled to move his head so that he faced the sky, harming nobody with his optic beam. Pushing through the burn, Cyclops shut his eyes, containing the blasts.

"It would appear that Sabertooth did not come alone." Beast spoke, as he reflected the team's overlook. "And with Toad and Sabertooth together, it is very clear that Magneto and his Brotherhood are to blame for this disastrous scene."

"Well it's obvious these two aren't the brains of the operation." Wolverine grumbled as he rushed towards Sabertooth again. The two locked arms and growled at one another as each tried to overpower the other.

"Beast let's lend Logan a hand." Jean Grey hovered to her ally. As she levitated down the street, the mutant used her mind to pick Cyclops visor of the street and return it to her lover's face. "Toad is mostly just a threat to himself. Scott will take care of him."

As the two ran towards Wolverine and Sabertooth, a whirl of blue and white light sped in front of them, harshing knocking Jean to her feet and throwing Beast in a way that made him do a backflip to regain his equilibrium. The X-men quickly recovered to see Quicksilver standing between them ready to fight.

"I believe we have no properly been introduced." Beast said with a friendly smile.

"It looks like Magneto's gone recruiting again…" Jean Gray sighed, thinking about how many mutants the evil master of magnetism had negatively influence to ruin their lives with misguided crime to serve his cause. "Look, whoever you are…this isn't a place for you, step aside so that we can prevent Sabertooth and Toad from causing any more damage."

"Oh your one to talk…" Quicksilver retorted, "Magneto's told me all about you X-men. You defend the very same humans that want to hunt us mutants down. Your traitors to your own kind, and harm innocent mutants on a regular basis! You're a mutant hate group…full of mutants!"

"It is clear that this youth is misguided." Hank Mckoy (the real name of Beast) observed as he hopped onto a telephone poll near Quicksilver. "We are not the monsters you claim us X-men to be. And might I add, at the risk of stating the obvious, we were not the ones that started a scene here in New York City today."

"But if you insist on fighting us," Jean continued, "we'll finish it."

"Oooh," Quicksilver gave a mock sense of intimidation. "that sounds like a challenge!"

With his super speed, Pietro ran up the telephone and quickly knocked Beast off of it. This disoriented the mutant, and he fell to the ground hitting his head. Then Quicksilver ran towards Jean Grey who began to levitate high in the air with the hopes of avoiding the speedster. Unable to hit Jean, Quicksilver began to run circles around her, creating a tornado vacuum sucking the air from where Jean hovered.

"Scott!" Jean gasped.

Cyclops heard his girlfriend's cry and knew he needed to aid immediately. Toad leapt towards him again, and Scott looked at his approaching mutant advisory and launched a concentrated optic blast which hit Toad in his head. The gross mutant hit the ground dazed and confused.

"Jean!" Cyclops yelled as he ran closer towards where his lady was being attacked. He observed Quicksilver moving so fast that he could not be targeted. Knowing that his enemy was creating this whirlwind by moving so fast, and being multiple places seemingly at the same time, Cyclops shot a beam into a central area of the blue and white whirlwind, under Jean. The beam hit Quicksilver, who fell to the ground.

"Okay that was a cheap shot." Quicksilver spoke swiftly, as he shook his head to shake off the pain. "It won't happen again."

Pietro aimed to up to his feet and run once more, but before he could, the mutant realized he could no longer move his body. He was being pushed into the ground by Jean Grey's mind. Cyclops moved over Quicksilver and his visor gleamed a bright red, showing he had an optic blast ready.

"Go on, keep trying to get up…I'll put you down for good, Speedy."

"It's Quicksilver…" Pietro spoke struggled to move. "And just you wait, you'll get yours…"

Not to far from the three battling mutants, Wolverine and Sabertooth were locked in another knock down drag out death match. Each primal mutant would land deadly strikes, but then the other mutant would recover due to their fast regeneration. Finally Wolverine found himself on top of Sabertooth with his claw at the beast's neck.

"Looks like even with your new friend the Loserhood lost again, Sabertooth."

Sabertooth slowly chuckled as Wolverine looked at the mutant, perplexed at his reaction. Unable to get up at this moment, Sabertooth decided to spill the beam.

"The goal was never to _beat_ you and your precious X-men." Sabertooth's voice was gruff and arrogant. "We only came to keep you busy so you didn't interfere with the _real_ operation."

"What!" Wolverine felt his rage rising. "You rotten pile of horse trash…." Logan's verbal insult swiftly turned to a hard punch in the face which knocked Sabertooth out. He yelled back at the X-men. "This was just a distraction, Magneto's up to something somewhere else!"

Quicksilver felt his body being pressured harder into the rocks. Cyclops shot the ground next to him leaving a large hole with smoking coming from it. Magneto had warned Pietro that this may happen, and instructed him that after Sabertooth broke the news of an alternate plan, he was allowed for full disclosure with the X-men to prevent any more physical harm.

"This doesn't have to get any uglier then it already is." Cyclops yelled at Quicksilver, "Tell me where Magneto is, NOW!"

"You may want to turn on the NEWS here in a few minutes." Quicksilver said with a grin, "Because New York City's biggest mutant containment facility is about to go down…with a bang! You can't stop it X-men. We were sent here to distract you from the real plan."

"Storm, Rogue, Gambit…" Cyclops touched his ear and started to speak into a communicator to the rest of the X-men. "Magneto's target is the MRD…he's taking out one of their facilities here in New York, but I have no idea which one…figure that out quickly, and stop him."

* * *

Outside the city at the most heavily guarded mutant prison facility in the US, Mystique, disguised as an MRD officer, entered the building with a handcuffed Scarlet Witch.

"I'm dropping off a threat level A mutant." The shape shifter spoke into an intercom. "You don't want this one getting out, she's a real witch, if I do say so myself."

"We didn't get any word of an A level mutant being dropped of today." The man on the other side of the speaker stated. "For such a dangerous drop off, it's protocol to let us know…State your name and rank, officer."

"Samuel Gibbins, 3rd lieutenant." Mystique lied.

"Officer Gibbins was lost in the line of duty three weeks ago when we attempted to capture Magneto." The speaker replied. "Initiating Security Protocol Omega ."

"Well that could have gone better. "Mystique muttered as she reverted to her blue form, and unlocked Wanda's handcuffs.

"What's happening?" the Scarlet Witch asked as she rubbed her wrists.

"It's time to put your little magic to use." Mystique spoke brashly as she pulled out her laser gun and began to shoot down officers coming her way. "We need to get in and down, as quickly as possible."

"You got it." The brunette seventeen year old replied as her hands turned red and she waved them in the air. As her hands moved, the large secure gate that was the entrance to the prison crumbled into nothing.

As the ladies rushed in, out of the walls came many turrets that charged to open fire on Mystique and the Scarlet Witch. The shape Shifter shot soldiers closing in behind them, as the Scarlet Witch caused the guns to overload and explode. They moved past several levels of the prison with the hopes of getting to the bottom, and the deeper they went, the heavier security was. At one point, Several soldiers teleported in the terminal, surrounding the women. Wanda set many of the guns on fire, as Mystique fluttered around the room punching, kicking, and shoot officers.

"They really are against us liberating these prisoners." Wanda spoke as she caused a large metal beam to snap off part of the structure and hit a few men. "How can people imprison others with such dedicated hatred?"

"The extent of these weaklings prejudice is truly immeasurable." Mystique seethed with hatred as she spoke of the humans.

As the two fought, it finally got to the point where there was too much human resistance. From behind, two heavily armored soldiers shot a prototype gun at the Scarlet Witch, and out of the gun came blue goo that trapped her hands, making the mutant powerless. Numerous soldiers surrounded Mystique, ordering her to drop her weapon.

"Magneto," Mystique spoke into her communicator. "The operation has failed, the facility is simply to heavily guarded. We neutralized the threat of the X-men, but it appears we under estimated the homo sapiens."

The last thing both Mystique and the Scarlet Witch saw before they blacked out was the end of a metal rifle, knocking them out.

* * *

Magneto slammed his fists onto the computer he was watching back at the Brotherhood's warehouse. These humans may think they have successfully stopped his invasion, but they clearly have not gone to war with the master of magnetism before. Magneto placed his helmet on his head, and left the warehouse, ready to squash some bugs.


	5. The Brotherhood Part III

**Author's Note: **_Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter! I rewrote a few times because I just didn't like how things came out...still not 100% a fan of what I put out, but I decided it was more important to get it out there to progress the story for you all. Without further ado, I give you the conclusion to the Brotherhood chronicle! Enjoy =)_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**The Brotherhood Part III**

Wanda awoke in metal jail cell that was dimly lit with a blue light, which flickered on and off. Aside from a minor headache, the Scarlet Witch seemed unharmed. She quickly noticed her arms were in large metal cuffs, restricting any movement whatsoever. Her jail cell had no bars, but electronic bolts that prohibited anyone from getting out. At first impression, Wanda assumed herself to be alone in the cell, but that theory changed, once she heard the voice of a young man.

"It's good to see you up, beautiful. I was hoping we'd be able to spend some time together before I get out of here."

The Scarlet Witch quickly turned to her left to see a man appear from the shadow of the cell. He had an odd costume on. His leather helmet, covering everything but his mouth, was light purple and looked like it was representing some kind of bird. He had a light purple sleeveless tunic on, that had the emblem of a H over the body in a darker purple color. He wore purple tights, with medieval looking dark purple boots on. Wanda thought about laughing about his outfit, but remembered what she was in fact wearing and decided against it.

"Who are you?" She asked curious about her new cellmate.

"You can call me Hawkeye." The man said with a smile, "so I gotta know, what kind of power does a gorgeous lady like yourself have that gets her locked into this cell?"

"It's complicated…" Scarlet Witch spoke, not wanting to explain how her power over probability worked to this stranger. "But needless to say, if I got these cuffs off, I could get us out of here easily."

"That certainly is the challenge of the day." Hawkeye replied with a tricky smile on his face, "Perhaps I can help with that? You see, you've been laying there all gorgeous and unconscious for quite some time, and I came up with a little plan while you were asleep, but I am in need of one thing from you."

"What's that?" Scarlet Witch asked, still a little uneasy about this young man. "I swear, if this is your intro to a pickup line…"

"Don't worry," Hawkeye assured her with a charming smile, "I'll save the cheesy one liners for when we're outside this facility. What I need from you is that cute little tiara you have on your head."

"What?" Scarlet Witch had no idea what Hawkeye possibly was thinking about doing. "Why do you want that?"

"I'll show you, c'mon give me the tiara."

"Whatever…" Scarlet Witch replied as she walked over to the wall where Hawkeye stood. "You're creeping me out, man. By the way, you never told me what your mutant power is."

"That's kind of a funny story." Hawkeye explained, "I was kind of on a mission for my…err, organization…and it involved helping some mutants get out of a bind, and when I helped them get away from the MRD, I was caught…and because I'm such an awesome human, everyone was convinced I had mutant powers…but I really don't, I guess I am just that good."

"Maybe your power is a super human sized ego." Wanda joked as she leaned over so the handcuffed Hawkeye could remove her tiara.

The man dressed in purple fidgeted for a few minute with the tiara in his hands then eventually was able to pick the lock of his cuffs with the tiara. Shortly after that, he uncuffed Wanda in the same way. The Scarlet Witch was very impressed with his lock picking ability and considered it good fortune that she was put in the same cell as Hawkeye. With the mutant's hands free, Wanda began concentrating her power ready to Hex the door and bust through the prison.

"Hold on just a second!" Hawkeye jumped in front of the Scarlet Witch. "Now, I'm not sure what you're power is…but if you think blasting out of here is the best plan of escape, let me assure you that the security here is tighter than a knot on a rope…stealth should be our primary escape route.

"That's a good point." Scarlet Witch had scarred memories of her and Mystique being subdued in their attempt to infiltrate this facility. "I came in with the hopes of breaking out a mutant, but that didn't exactly happen."

"Perhaps we can find a way to override the security cell here." Hawkeye spoke as he examined the door.

"Or if it just had a tiny power surge…" Wanda used her power to create a hex that overloaded the electrified jail cell door. With a loud pop, the electricity disappeared. "It could short out the entire cell."

The two quickly moved out of the cell into the facility hallway, to see a MRD guard waiting for them with his rifle pointed at the Scarlet Witch. The mutant cussed as she readied a hex to disarm the mutant hater. Before she could use her powers, Hawkeye jumped out of the cell and threw Wanda's tiara at the guard like a ninja star. The tiara jammed into the point of the rifle, and caused it to explode, knocking the soldier down.

"Wow!" the Scarlet Witch was astonished by Hawkeye's accuracy, as she picked up her tiara and put it back on her head. "That was impressive."

"You should see me with a bow and arrow!"

"I didn't come here alone." The crimson lady spoke as the two ran to the other end of the hall and took the stairs to the next level. "we have to go find Mystique and get her out of here too."

"Woah, wait a minute!" Hawkeye stopped abruptly. "Mystique….she's on a list of wanted supervillians for the organization I work with…surely…you're not here with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are you?"

"Well, we're really just called the Brotherhood…" Scarlet Witch replied, "It's only mutant haters that call us _evil_ mutants."

"No it's really everyone…" Hawkeye corrected her, "Magneto is a pretty bad dude, and the people that follow him aren't much better. "

Amidst their argument, there was an explosion at the door near them. After the smoke cleared, Hawkeye and Wanda saw several armed MRD officers armed with various weapons from flamethrowers to laser rifles, ready to apprehend their escaped prisoners.

"Guess word got out on our escape pretty quickly." Hawkeye grumbled. "What do you say we table this talk for later, eh?"

"Good plan!" Wanda replied as she started to cast hexes, causing the small army's weapons to backfire. "There are to many of these guys to fight off though."

"We just have to get around them!" the man in purple spoke, as he slid under the legs of two flamethrowers. He unhooked the tubes connecting their flame gun to their fire tank, causing the tank to explode on the backs of the men. Hawkeye then turned around to see down the hall, Mystique being chased by several mutant hating soldiers. "Hey I have some good news and some bad news…"

"I'm curious about what in this situation could be considered good news." Wanda spoke as she caused three guns to explode and their officers to fall on their face.

"It's two parts really…First, we weren't the ones that got the attention of the MRD, so at least our escape was successful! Second, I found your friend Mystique…but the bad news, she's being chased down by a lot more soldiers."

Suddenly, an entire wall of the building was ripped off of the facility as everyone's ears were deafened by the sound of metal pulling from hinges all on its own. Everyone, mutant, mutant hater, and Hawkeye's, attention was turned to the wall leading outside. The eyes went to the skies above where they saw Magneto floating in the air, breaking apart pieces of the metal wall and throwing it at MRD officers, killing them instantly. Climbing up the walls came Toad and Sabertooth who began to fight off MRD men as well from Mystique. As they still moved up the wall, a blue and white flash whooshed by, and suddenly the Scarlet Witch who was surrounded by many soldiers was picked up and moved towards Sabertooth, Toad, and Mystique. The brunette in red turned around to see her brother, Quicksilver put her down on her feet.

"Pietro!" Wanda exclaimed as she hugged her brother. "You picked the best time to come rushing in."

Quicksilver hugged his sister tightly as he realized that this was the first time the two had ever been apart. He was very relieved to see that Wanda was not harmed. Suddenly his sister turned back to where she was in the staircase.

"Hawkeye!" She exclaimed, "I was in there with the guy who helped me get out…He's surrounded by MRD troops."

"Don't worry about it!" Quicksilver spoke as he sped off and punched the ten men surrounding the marksman. Hawkeye, once surrounded by many blinked and saw nobody near him except Quicksilver.

"Gee thanks…" Hawkeye was confused as the speedster nodded at him. "But aren't you guys supposed to be the bad guys?"

"Says who?" Pietro asked.

"Says the good guys!" A gruff voice from outside spoke. Pietro recognized it as Wolverine.

Suddenly a large red beam destroyed a wall and the X-men (Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, and Storm) entered the building, ready to battle the Brotherhood. Mystique cursed as she gave a spinning crescent kick to the face of a MRD officer. There was just to many people trying to fight them.

"Mystique!" Magneto commanded, "Get to the Juggernaut, NOW!"

"I'll pave you a way!" Sabertooth growled as he charged forward knocking out several soldiers in the shapeshifter's path…as she transformed into a cheetah and began to run down the hall.

"Don't let get to the bottom level!" A officer yelled as his troops readied their rifles and began shooting at Mystique, all missing her with her quick reflexes.

"X-men, apprehend Mystique!" Cyclops ordered his team, "This will get a lot harder if that monster is released."

"Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Toad…help me teach our mutant brethren their place in this world!" Magneto raged as he threw large metal debris at the X-men. "If you are against Magneto then you will fall at his hands!"

Hawkeye watched the mutants battling and was baffled at how he had aided in the escape of a brotherhood mutant. With that said, he couldn't help but feel that Scarlet Witch, and her brother Quicksilver, were not as bad as the others…if only they were on different sides! Realizing that his top priority was stopping the shapeshifter from letting the notoriously evil and powerful Juggernaut escape, Hawkeye scrambled past the battle and started to chuck rocks at the cheetah, hitting her in the head each time. If _only_ he had his bow! Mystique turned back and growled at Hawkeye in annoyance.

"Wanda! Your friend is getting in the way." Quicksilver called out as he sped around, dodging blasts from Cyclops.

"Sorry Hawkeye!" the Scarlet Witch spoke disappointed with what she had to do. "But we owe Magneto for training me the way he has…you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time!"

The mutant hexed several metal beams that Magneto had thrown in the area to wrap around the archer and pinned him against the ground. The battle between mutants (with MRD soldiers occasionally joining in when they weren't running from the backlash of battle.) raged on for several minutes until it was clear that Mystique had made her way to the bottom level to release Juggernaut. Before long, there was a large roar of the terrifying man leaping through the floor breaking everything in sight.

Quicksilver had heard about this giant mutant, but never had he seen something so out of control and dangerous. Juggernaut was at least eight feet tall with mounds of muscle covering his entire body, which was covered in red armor and a giant red helmet. It was clear that the large man was furious that he had been contained, and aimed to break the facility down inch by inch, injuring as many people as possible within the process.

The X-men fought the Brotherhood courageously, but with the added power of the Juggernaut it appeared that Magneto's forces were too strong for the mutant heroes to face. As the fight continued, a blinding light appeared in the middle of the scene. At that moment, nobody, mutant or human alike could move a muscle. X-men, Brotherhood, MRD…everyone was frozen looking around trying to understand who was doing this.

"Wanda, do you mind?" Quicksilver yelled out to his sister, figuring this was her power again.

"It's not me!" the Scarlet Witch yelled back.

"Behold, mortals!" a voice came from the blinding light. "It is I, Stranger, who withholds motion from you!"

All eyes fell upon the old man coming from the blinding light. He had many wrinkles, white hair and a white beard, and was dressed in green and orange garments. As everyone stood still, Stranger looked around at the people gazing at each mutant and human intently, looking to further his own agenda.

"Earth fascinates me with its so called mutants." Stranger spoke, his voice demanding the attention of all the motionless. "Such powerful entities among the powerless, it's truly a biological paradox within this dimension…I simply must know more."

Stranger's eyes fell upon the Juggernaut as he continued to speak. "You seem to be the most powerful in this group, but your powers are not natural…I have no need for you…"

Stranger's attention then moved elsewhere, and looked at the Toad, as Juggernaut struggled to break free, cursing the powerful being. "You are obviously are the weakest mutant here…I will take you as an example of the least potential."

Finally, the dimensional traveler's gaze fell upon Magneto. "Ahhh…you are a being of immense power, that is very well trained…I simply must study you. It's decided! The one called Toad and the one called Magneto will come with me to further my research."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Magneto demanded. "I will do no such…"

And before the Master of Magnetism could utter the word "thing", he, Toad, and Stranger all disappeared in a bright blinding light. The awkward silence due to nobody knowing what happened was broken by a raging Juggernaut who insisted on chasing Stranger. He busted through the building and raged outside, as the structure began to fall due to lack of foundation.

"X-men we have to retreat!" Cyclops called out to his team.

"Let's get out of here too!" Quicksilver yelled, as he picked up Wanda and sped off. After getting his sister to safety, Quicksilver went back in, rescued Mystique, and returned once more to drag Sabertooth out.

"Jeez, you're a heavy one!" Quicksilver spoke as he tossed the mutant onto the ground. "You guys are welcome by the way!"

"You!" Mystique growled, as she jumped up and rushed towards the Scarlet Witch. "This whole mess is YOUR fault!"

"What are you talking about?" Scarlet Witch demanded, working hard to contain her frustration. "What did I do that was anymore wrong then what you did!? If I remember correctly, we BOTH were caught!"

"Magneto was so certain that you're power would be a game changer in this entire plan, and you ended up being nothing more than a dud!" Mystique yelled furiously. "If you hadn't gotten caught…Argh, forget this!"

Mystique stormed away, as Sabertooth followed her. Scarlet Witch, confused at the turn of events, began to walk their way as well.

"Wait Wanda!" Quicksilver grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Those guys are a bunch of jerks. Let's not waste our time with them anymore. Besides, with Magneto gone, we don't really owe anything to Mystique or Sabertooth. Let's go back to doing things our way, it was a lot better. Besides, America seems like a pretty cool place to explore, don't you think?"

Scarlet Witch smiled as she considered leaving the Brotherhood. "You're right, they definitely didn't seem like the folks we should associate with. Forget them. Let's go Pietro!"

With that, Quicksilver picked up his sister and the two sped off in the opposite direction of the Brotherhood, leaving their team and not looking back.

* * *

A large floating fortress, known as the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters uncloaked from over the rubble of the New York's mutant containment facility. Several officers, including a certain superhero super soldier clad in red, white, and blue dropped down to find their missing teammate. It was this patriotic icon that pulled the purple sharpshooter from the rubble.

"Are you okay, soldier?" he spoke to Hawkeye.

"Yes, thanks to you Captain." Hawkeye replied. "That was definitely an odd experience at best…Mutants are not to be taken lightly, that's for sure."

"Let's get you back to the medical ward and treat those injuries."

"Sure thing…but when I'm better, with your permission I'd like to go seek out a couple of new recruits." Hawkeye spoke as he was helped into the S.H.I.E.L.D ship. "I met a couple of unusual mutants that I think would be a great asset to our new team."


	6. Operation New Hope Part I

**Chapter 6**

**Operation New Hope Part I**

It was a day like any other, until there was a giant explosions of energy in the in numerous areas of the world. Out of the explosions came waves of monstrous aliens, all with one purpose in mind: The annihilation of the human race. The aliens were known as the Vordocks, and they were a conquering race that knew no other form of communication other than violence and conquest.

Vordocks were not very tall beings, usually compared to humans of small or medium sizes. They had sleek orange skin and demonic yellow eyes. They were often very muscular and trained at very young ages to be warriors. Their weapons of choice were laser axes and large laser guns that shot several energy rounds before tiring. Vordock Infiltrators often arrived in earth on hover motorcycles and hover boards. They didn't use aerial combat machines like ships or planes unless it was to transport more of their never-ending legions. Vordocks could breathe without oxygen, so they had no care for the wellbeing of earth, and began terrorizing it upon arrival.

The US armed forces were minimally effective at best, and the top secret organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D was down to playing its last card, depending on the alliance of superheroes known as the Avengers. This group of Earth's Mightiest Heroes often would ban together to protect their home world from many extra-terrestrial threats such as the Vordock invasion.

"We're running out of plays to run, here Captain…" the voice of Nick Fury's came through the large flat screen TV at the Avengers Mansion in New York City. "S.H.I.E.L.D, the US military, and your Avengers have fought tooth and nail with these aliens and their sheer force of numbers has been enough to keep us on the losing side of this fight. We need to end this, and quick."

"We need a bigger army…" Captain America spoke to the director, concerned for this grave situation but unable to see a solution. "We're to outnumbered, even the Avengers have their limit."

"Unless you've been hiding some more superheroes in that big house over there," Fury replied with his typical attitude, "I don't believe that's a plan that will get any follow through."

"No, suppose your right."

"Captain I may have one idea…" Hawkeye spoke as he leapt into the room, having just come back from subduing a small Vordock attack in New York. "The operation I spoke to you several months ago…the Avengers Initiative that involved bringing in and reforming criminals with the hopes of boosting our ranks."

"This is hardly the time for such a radical move, Clint…" Fury responded on the TV screen.

"With all due respect, Director." Captain America replied, "This may be the only time that such a drastic measure could be utilized. You said it yourself, Nick…we're running out of plays."

"This is absolutely Ludacris." Fury admitted, now realizing this crazy idea may be his only plan of attack. "Alright Cap, if you do this…at least only choose from the criminals who have shown "good behavior" in prison."

"Understood, Director." Captain America agreed, as he shut off the TV and turned to his partner, Hawkeye. "Let's go to Prison 42 and find us some bad guys. Hopefully the sweet feeling of justice will be enough to turn these people to the side of good."

"Letting these guys loose will at least keep the Vordock busy for us to come up with a better idea." Hawkeye shrugged as he and Captain America left the room."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the prison within the negative zone, Prison 42, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch sat in their cells with their fellow partner in crime, St John Allerdyce, aka Pyro the Australian mutant of fire manipulation. Pyro was a man of medium height and slender build with wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, and typically wore large high powered flame throwers (with a flame tank on his back) that he stole from the MRD. The mutant's power was not creating fire out of nothing, but changing and controlling fire into whatever his mind desired.

Pyro, once a famous author who found more profitable means through crime, had hoped to destroy a MRD complex that had a record of violently testing on their mutant prisoners. After being hired to complete this task for a king's ransom, the flamethrower realized the job was too much for him so he used his own riches to hire the aid of Pietro and Wanda. After hearing that the MRD at one time, roughly a year ago, captured the Scarlet Witch, John correctly assumed that the mutant twins would love to get paid to have swift revenge. Much to the dismay of the three, their less than legal operation was apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D, alongside Captain America and Wolverine (Who still held a nasty disdain towards Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch from aiding Magneto earlier.)

The detained villains ears perked up as they heard the portal to Earth open, as people entered the negative zone. Quicksilver had his feet locked down in reinforced adamantium cuffs, Scarlet Witch had cuffs around her arms preventing her from hexing, and without his flamethrower, Pyro was just as much a captive prisoner as the other two.

Captain America and Hawkeye walked near their cell, standing directly in front of the three. The only thing separating heroes and villains was a blue impenetrable forcefield that kept the captives inside. Hawkeye read off the bios of each person as the Captain decided if these people fit what he was looking for.

"Pyro, aka St John Allerdyce…as his name suggests, he's a mutant who can control and manipulate fire, usually coming from his flame throwers. He was thrown in prison because he, along with his cronies in here, tried to infiltrate a mutant testing facility through very destructive means.

Quicksilver, aka Pietro Maximoff…this mutant has superhuman speed, he was apprehended with Pyro, and also has been noted as a criminal speeding around the US taking whatever he wants. Tsk Tsk, speedy, taking whatever you want is wrong…especially when you're caught!

Finally we have the beautiful Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff. Her mutant power, as amazing as it sounds, is to control probability. If there is even a decimal of a chance of something happening, she can make it happen. Considered the power behind the operation of the three this mutant is considered very dangerous, and a little unstable mentally. (Wanda rolled her eyes at the bold accusation made on her file…so what if she had a tendency to catch things on fire when she lost her temper?)."

"Alright listen up, because I'm only going to say this once." Captain America spoke to the prisoners. "We're in a state of global emergency due to the invasion of a hostile alien force on Earth. The Avengers ranks are thinned as many of our best have been taken captive onto an alien ship, whereabouts currently unknown. Additionally, the Vordock forces have increased in the past months with our troops diminishing. Due to these circumstances, we have instigated a new initiative known as Operation New Hope…the idea is to rehabilitate super-powered criminals such as yourself by giving them the chance to do good by helping us in our time of need. The deal is simple, help us stop the Vordock invasion and you have your freedom. Double cross us once outside, and you're back inside. What do you all say?"

"After being locked up in here for a month I'd do anything to get out." Pietro complained, "You got it, stars and stripes…point me to the bad guys and I'll take care of the rest!"

"They're hard to miss…" Hawkeye interjected, "They have orange skin."

"I agree with my brother." Scarlet Witch spoke callously, "I'm ready to get out of here…I'll help."

"I've always wanted to see what alien barbeques look like!" Pyro added, with a villainous smile. "I trust you kept my personal belongings in working order?"

"Yes John…" Captain America agreed, as he pressed a button the prison cell to drop the forcefield. From there, he threw Pyro's flame equipment and costume into the cell. The mutant laughed with joy as he attached the flamethrowers back to his body. The Captain looked at Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and spoke again. "Hawkeye seems to think that deep down, you two aren't bad based on previous encounters. Personally, I'm not to sure…but this is your chance to prove him right, don't let us down soldiers."

"Whatever you say, big guy." Quicksilver replied as he sped out of the cell and near the portal out of the negative door. "Fire up this thing and let's get to work!"

"You have our word that we won't betray you until this invasion is subdued." Scarlet Witch spoke on the behalf of her brother and herself, "After that, who can say? I've never been much of a fan of organizations that imprison people with powers, even if they are made up of superpowered people themselves."

Scarlet Witch followed Captain America and Hawkeye out of the negative zone through the portal, and before Quicksilver could follow his sister, Pyro put his hand on the speedster's shoulder, wanting to speak with him.

"Listen mate," Pyro spoke softly. "First chance I get I'm going to barbeque Captain America and his little friend for sending us to this intergalactic hell. Stick with me, and we'll be able to escape a lot sooner than at the end of this little invasion."

As the two left Quicksilver was uneasy at the plan of double crossing. He didn't much care for Pyro's lack of loyalty to anyone but himself, and he definitely wasn't keen on the idea of going back on the word his sister gave on his behalf, and yet he was unsure about siding with the Avengers too. The man dressed in blue and white shrugged as they re-entered Earth. He'd figure out what to do when the time came.


	7. Operation New Hope Part II

**Author's Note: **_Guess I had time to do 2 chapters today, hope you enjoy them! Just in case you are wondering, the Vordock race is my own creation, feel free to use them in your writing if you want. After this chronicle I probably won't be using them again, maybe I will, who knows? For those that are finding all kind of Marvel textual inaccuracies in my book so far, please remember that I'm taking creative liberties in the storyline. Pyro may not be part of the brotherhood til much later in the marvel universe, but I really like him and have always dreamt of a rivalry between Pyro and Quicksilver so I'm making it work in my story._

_Also, now that we're 7 chapters in the movie I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has followed, favorited, or reviewed this novel. I love hearing from you all and it's always encouraging to know that I have readers! Special thanks CyKiESuMMerS, xmenfan33, AngeliqueRox, Jess Maximoff, and GinaLeBeau for their reviews and support. All those folks are good writers and have some fun stuff out there, check it out if you want!  
_

_And now...back to the story!_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Operation New Hope Part II**

In San Diego near the coast, a large Vordock transport appeared and unleashed several hundred soldiers with murderous intent. As the creatures that resembled orange Orcs in heavy body armor dropped down onto the coast, the people of San Diego ran in terror, screaming loudly. Amidst the chaos, a blue and white flash of light appeared as Quicksilver reached the cost. Holding on to one of the orange aliens as he ran, and quickly letting go, as the speedster appeared on the scene he tossed the heavy creature into several others, knocking them all down like a bowling ball into the pins.

"This is my city." Qucksilver said arrogantly to the Vordock soldiers. "And it's time to take out the trash!"

Several axe wielders rushed towards the fast man trying to slice him down to size. Each attack was a utter failure, as Pietro was too fast. Instead of slicing Quicksilver, the mob of Vordock troopers slashed and injured each other.

Back at the Avengers Assault Cruiser nearing San Diego, Captain America shook his head, as Quicksilver disobeyed a direct order to wait for the rest of the team before entering battle.

"That kid isn't very skilled in the art of waiting, is he?" Captain America asked Wanda, who stood next to him.

"Never." Pietro's sister responded rolling her eyes. "Patience and my brother don't have much of a relationship."

"Well let's get on down there and start rocking!" Pyro exclaimed with manic pleasure in his voice, as the hatch door began to descend. "Can't let Quicksilver have all the fun, can we mates?"

"Wait we should come up with a plan of attack…." Captain America tried to speak as Pyro lunged out of the aircraft landing on a nearby rooftop, and unleashing his fire onto the Vordock riflemen, laughing the entire time.

"Super villains…." Hawkeye grumbled "Their plan of attack usually involves jumping out guns a blazing…no wonder they always get caught!"

"Well there is our first wave of attack." Captain America spoke, flexibly changing his strategy to fit his unorthodox new allies. "Me and the Scarlet Witch will aid Quicksilver and Pyro on the ground defense, Hawkeye stay in this ship and try to figure out a way to open up one of those energy holes that they've been using to get here through. We need to figure out a way to get to the main ship, get our men back, and take the Vordock down from the inside out!"

"Aye Aye Cap!" Hawkeye acknowledged. "I'll be covering you guys through the air too."

As the Scarlet Witch descended to the same rooftop as Pyro she caused the faultlines under a building with many Vordock snipers to erupt, which sent great tremors that led to the earth engulfing the building and the aliens on it. Captain America landed on the street and began fighting off several of the soldiers alongside Quicksilver, punching, kicking, and using his shield expertly. Pyro remained on the top causing flames to turn into massive tigers and other feral creatures that would devour and burn Vordock troops. As it turned out, Pyro learned, this alien race was highly flammable just like humans.

Quicksilver sped around cloths lining several aliens and dodging laser blasts and ended up shooting down Vordock soldiers. The speedster smiled to himself, enjoying this one sided battle. The Avengers Assault Cruiser hovered around the area shooting down the creatures as well, as Hawkeye was at the helm with supreme accuracy.

"Keep it up, people!" Captain America ordered, "They'll have to order for reinforcements eventually…and when they do maybe we can piggyback on that portal they use to get here!"

The Captain's attention was distracted as several aliens had thrown large rocks in front of Quicksilver, impeding his movement, and then shot him in the back, knocking the mutant to his knees. A axeman raced towards the stunned speedster with his weapon raised, ready to strike. With one swift movement, Captain America threw his shield at the axeman and knocked him onto the ground, allowing Quicksilver to speed around and use the alien's weapon against him.

"Careful soldier!" Captain America spoke to Pietro, "These hostiles are everywhere! Be mindful of your surroundings!"

"Thanks…" Quicksilver was not accustomed to anyone other than his sister having his back, and was impressed with the character of Captain America, who shamelessly would protect anyone, no matter who he was.

The battle raged on for several minutes, the Avengers and villains easily defeating many of the warlike grunts together as an effective war force. After enough of their troops had fallen, the Vordock grounds commander smacked the communication plate in his chest armor, and gave the order for reinforcements. There was a loud pop, as another energy portal opened up.

"Hawkeye! Now is our chance!" Captain America spoke through his communicator to his ally.

"I can't keep the portal open!" Hawkeye spoke from the cruiser, as he kept shooting at the energy field hoping to make it stay open. Unfortunately, as the Vordock troops descended, the portal began to close.

"You're not trying hard enough!" Scarlet Witch spoke, annoyed at the incompetence of the Avengers technology. "Let me show you how it's done!"

Sensing that there was a .0064% possibility for the portal to be ruptured and stay open indefinitely, Wanda shot up a hex that collided with the energy door and caused it to open widely.

"This is our chance, everyone back on the ship and let's take the fight to the Vordock!" Captain America ordered as he threw his shield on his back and pointed upward at the now opened gateway to the other dimension where the Vordocks existed.

Meanwhile from the rooftop, Pyro saw his opening to attack a currently defenseless Captain America. The fire manipulator smiled as he noticed an open side to the Avengers leader. He could launch a full force fire blast at the super soldier and have him barbequed before the man would have a chance to pull out his powerful shield.

"Good luck leading your little assault from the afterlife!" Pyro muttered to himself as he launched the inferno towards Captain America."

"Cap! Watch out!" Hawkeye saw the flames raging towards Rogers, knowing that his leader couldn't possibly move in time.

The archer wasn't the only one who saw the flames descending from the build, Quicksilver had noticed that Pyro had turned his attention on Captain America and launched a massive wave of flames. Without a moment's hesitation, Pietro rushed towards the Captain, and picked him up and ran into the space ship, saving him from the flames.

"You double crossing bastard!" Pyro yelled out in rage at his former partner. In the villain's mind, Quicksilver and him were cut from the same rock and he hadn't considered this betrayal. Realizing his grave error, the flames of Pyro's rage fumed with the urge for vengeance. "I'll teach you what happens to those that mess with me!"

"I've had just about enough from you, Pyro." Scarlet Witch called out in her communicator to the maniac, as she jumped aboard the assault cruiser as well. "You got us caught in the MRD facility, and now you're trying to burn my brother? I don't think so…"

With that comment, Wanda hexed Pyro's flame tank on his back to overheat and explode. The impact of the explosion knocked the fire manipulator off the building and into a heap of rubble. Now powerless to do anything but run, Pyro ran away from the masses of Vordock soldiers cussing the twins and swearing his eventual vengeance the next time their paths crossed.

"You two saved my life…" Captain America said as he put his hand on Quicksilver's shoulder. "and that makes you a hero in my book…maybe there is something to this Operation New Hope. "

"We're not out of the woods yet." Hawkeye interjected from the cockpit, as their aircraft entered unknown space through the light portal. "What next, Cap?"

"Find the biggest spaceship…" Captain America ordered, "That'd be the alien headquarters, that's where our friends are being held, and my guess is that's where the leader of this assault is hiding out at. It's time we put an end to this invasion!"


	8. Operation New Hope Part III

**Chapter 8**

**Operation New Hope Part III**

The Avengers Cruiser shot a beam through the side of the biggest Vordock ship they found in space and entered into the hanger bay of alien craft. The ship, being designed from some kind of synthetic organic alien material, instantly recovered it's wall as soon as the Avengers entered the ship. Captain America gave orders, as the hatch opened and the team left jet.

"Our mission is twofold. First, we must rescue our friends that are being held captive. Then together, with the rest of the team, we find the leader of this Vordock invasion and take him down. Any questions?"

There were none, so the super soldier led his squad into the depths of the alien ship in search for his allies. To Quicksilver, the inside of the alien spaceship seemed like the inside of a large beast. The walls seemed to inhale and exhale slowly as if they were lungs. The floor was soft, and all around the corridors were giant green eggs that were linked into the ship by some kind of vein.

"This is by far the most repulsive place I have ever been…" Wanda groaned, disgusted at the sight of the alien technology, as the team entered a large room.

"We said the same thing when we invaded your little planet." A low, deep, booming, and loud voice was heard all throughout the large dimly lit room.

"We're not alone!" Captain America spoke as he readied his shield, "Keep your heads up…Be ready for anything!"

"So many unique individuals this Earth has to offer." The voice spoke, as the room lit up through unknown measures. "You all will make valuable additions to my collection of prisoners. When we are done with the invasion, you will be taken back to the Mother Planet for inspection and extraction. Your powers will aid the Vordock empire greatly."

The lights revealed the Avengers to be in a massive room of many levels filled with a multitude of eggs, similar to the ones that had been all over the ship. In front of them at the top most level, stood a Vordock larger than most of his kind. He wore a different kind of armor with a star on his chest, and several mechanical devices attached to his body. It was clear that this Vordock was the leader, and controller of the ship. Also notably in the room, the four humans noticed a few tubes filled with green liquid, and captive Avengers.

Quicksilver looked as he identified the heroes based on Hawkeye's description during their trip to San Diego. There was a man suited in red and gold armor known as Ironman, who co-led the Avengers with Captain America. Next to him on the right side was a man dressed in black known as the Black Panther. Next to the Panther, was a tiny woman (the size of a bee) wearing black and yellow, with pixie-like wings, known as Wasp. Next to Wasp was a man wearing a red uniform with a silver helmet known as Ant-Man. All heroes were currently unconscious.

"Dang, they really got hold of most your team didn't they?" Quicksilver callously replied, noticing the fallen heroes. He particularly found amusement in seeing a tanked up Ironman, who was one of the heroes that had brought him into the negative zone.

"The Vordock were innumerable when they invaded Earth." Captain America spoke grimly, as he reminisced on their many recent defeats. "But I've noticed we haven't been met with much opposition here in this ship."

"Maybe they sent all their guys onto Earth figuring nobody could get to this ship?" Hawkeye spoke as he raised an arrow pointed at the Vordock leader. "What a stupid move, well…their loss. I'm sure given time, the Vordock Empire would have appreciated Earth as a nice vacation spot from all this ugliness."

"Foolish meat!" the alien warlord grumbled as he began pressing buttons on his gauntlet. "How little you understand of the likes of the great Vordock race. We are never at a shortage of troops!"

After speak, the commander pressed one last button and suddenly all the eggs in the room burst. As blue goo spread everywhere and on everyone, several dozens of Vordock brutes jumped out the eggs, roaring with rage. Out of the ceiling several axes flew down towards the aliens, all of whom caught the weapons with ease.

"You just had to say something, didn't you?" Scarlet Witch mocked Hawkeye as she swept the gross blue goo off her face as several aliens rushed the team.

"Make them suffer!" The Vordock leader ordered to his minions.

The four heroes fought hard against the mass of soldiers that closed in on them. Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch did their best strike them down with arrows and hex bolts from a distance, and Captain America and Quicksilver would fight in the front lines. Doors opened from all over the ship into the giant central room they were in, as many more Vordock hatchling aliens rushed in with murderous intent. Quicksilver surveyed the area quickly to notice that the four of them were _way_ outnumbered. Not having lost hope yet, Quicksilver's eyes fell on the tanks with the captive Avengers. A mischievous smile appeared on Pietro's face as he sped by a Vordock, knocked him down, took his axe, and ran up to the capsules.

The speedster whizzed up to Tony Stark's capsule and paused briefly. He had no idea if striking into this capsule would save the hero, or kill him. Thinking of it for half a second, and then shrugging, Quicksilver struck the capsule hard with the sharp alien battle axe. The glass shattered and the green liquid escaped, vaporizing upon exposure to oxygen in the ship. Ironman fell to the ground and instantly awoke, gasping for air. He looked up at his unexpected rescuer, Quicksilver.

"How'd you know that wouldn't have killed me?" Ironman asked, as he quickly jumped to his feet.

"I didn't." Quicksilver spoke as he took the axe and swiftly freed the other Avengers, all who awoke just as quickly.

"How sweet…" Ironman muttered, and then used his repulsors to fly into the air to survey the situation. Yelling out to his recently freed allies, the leader prepared for battle. "Looks like we woke up in the middle of a fight, let's send these Orcs back to Lord of the Rings. Avengers Assemble!"

Black Panther, Wasp, and Ant-Man instantly struck in a well-rehearsed battle formation against the Vordock. Quicksilver sped back down to the ground level to join his sister in battle, as the fight swerved onto the favor of the good guys, with their increased numbers. Pietro ran into several circles creating whirlwinds that blew Vordock axe-men away from Wanda, as she hexed parts of the ship to fall onto troopers. As they were battling, Iron-Man levitated down next to them.

"It's great to have you on board, Speedy and err…Red Woman." Tony Stark's cocky attitude shone through his words.

"That's Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver." Wanda corrected him, annoyed that the man in tin armor would dare belittle the two mutants. "And I'd remember that if I were you…it'd be a pity if there was any chance of your armor shorting out in this battle."

"That's highly unlikely," Ironman beamed with pride as he talked about his armor. "The energy cell I have right now is…"

"How unlikely?" Scarlet Witch flared with fury at the man who threw her in prison. Upon looking at Ironman, his entire body stopped moving and his armor began to shut down.

"Right…" Ironman spoke softly, being put in his place. "I remember now, you're the chick that can control probability."

"Wanda!" Quicksilver grabbed his sister's arm, surprised at this sudden outrageous outburst towards Ironman in the middle of fighting for their life. "This is SO not the place for starting a fight with the side that we're on. C'mon, let him go!"

"Damn straight I control probability." Wanda replied as she cooled down and let Ironman go, allowing his suit to regain power. "And don't you dare forget it, tin man."

"Right…Got it, Crazy." Ironman breathed easily, as his suit regained functions. "Listen, the big orange ugly leader up there is getting away…do you think you two could pave me a path to him? I want to make sure I thank him for his hospitality, before we go."

"You got it." Pietro spoke as he sped on and punched several Vordock soldiers, knocking them down in an instant. Scarlet Witch followed his obedience by causing several energy axes held by the aliens to blow up in the hands of the warriors. The small explosion was enough to knock them to their feet as well.

As the battle continued on the lower level, the Vordock leader saw that it was time for him to retreat. He began running out of the room towards the escape pod, but was cut off by Captain America and Hawkeye leaping in front of him.

"End of the road for you, ugly." Hawkeye spoke as he raised his bow.

"Your invasion is over." Captain America added, "the Vordock have lost."

"How dare you speak to me with such impetuous tongues!" the warlord yelled in fury as he turned around, only to be met by a large chest blast from Ironman. The powerful attacked knocked the warrior on his butt, as the three heroes surrounded him.

"You've over stayed your welcome." Ironman said as he pointed his hand blasters at the alien leader. "So I think it's time you call off your dogs here, bring home the ones on Earth, and go back to wherever the hell you came from…And this is me asking nicely."

"This isn't over…" The Vordock commander grumbled as he pressed buttons on his armor, that ordered the soldiers to return to the walls of the ship. "When we come back, it'll be with a force unlike anything you've ever seen. Things would have been easier if you had just let the Earth fall at the hands of one Vordock Warlord…crossing the entire empire as you have is like signing your own death sentence, Meat."

"If all the Warlords put up as much fight as you do, I think we're good shape." Hawkeye interjected, as the alien pressed another button on his armor to teleport away to an unknown location.

After the aliens left the ship, suddenly red lights started to flash as a siren began to sound. All Avengers looked around as they noticed the walls began to glow orange, as if charging power from some kind of source. From the entire room, the team began to hear growls that could only be assumed to be the native tongue of Vordocks.

"I'm sure whatever it is that thing is saying," Ant-Man, the scientist of the team spoke frantically, "can be translated to "This ship is about to blow up!""

"Let's move people!" Captain America instructed the team, pointing them in the direction of the Cruise ship.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Quicksilver spoke speedily, as he picked up his sister and whisked away to the cruiser. When he got to the ship, he looked back, considering leaving without the Avengers. The speedster spoke out loud. "It'd make things so much easier for us if they weren't around to catch us next time we're in a bind…"

"No…" Scarlet Witch said, as she stepped out of his arms. "We have no reason to kill them. When we arrive home with the Avengers, Captain America will give us our freedom. Then things will be back to normal. Killing him or any of his friends won't give us our freedom. Besides, we're low…but we're not _that_ low."

"I guess you're right." Quicksilver replied, remembering that he had stopped Pyro from a similar plot against Captain America that was almost as treacherous.

Within moments the rest of the Avengers arrived and Hawkeye flew the jet out of the giant space station, that exploded within moments of their departure. The blackhole back to Earth that Scarlet Witch had hexed was still open, but rapidly closing. Thanks to some impressive flying on archer's part, the jet made it back to Earth just before the portal completely closed. They landed the assault cruiser down on top of a tall building to overlook the city of San Diego, which was no Vordock free.

Outside of the jet, the Avengers stood together as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch slowly walked away. Captain America and Hawkeye left from the huddle with their team mates to speak to the twins.

"Listen," Captain America spoke to the two, "we could not have stopped the invasion without you two today and you saved my lives. We need some more Avengers, and you two would fit the bill perfectly."

"Us, Avengers?" Quicksilver chuckled at the idea.

"Please!" Scarlet Witch exclaimed, "Hey, if the hero thing falls through, at least you have a career in comedy, Captain."

"Who you fooling, Wanda?" Hawkeye asked, in a moment of rare seriousness for him. "We all know you're not one of the bad guys. And Pietro, the way you jumped to save Captain America earlier, freed the rest of the Avengers, and _didn't_ just leave the starship without us in the Avengers jet…you guys are in fact heroes, you're just afraid to admit it. Take it from a fellow rogue, that's not such a bad thing."

"You two, I can handle." Quicksilver admitted, "But don't stick me with Ironman for the first little bit, and we may have a deal."

"Taking out more gross aliens could prove to be entertaining." Scarlet Witch admitted as she began to enjoy the idea of being an Avenger."

"Well look around, soldiers." Captain America spoke, pointing at Hawkeye, himself, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. "Because as of right now, we are now what will be considered the West Coast Avengers. Welcome to the team!"


	9. Captain America Verses Quicksilver

**Chapter 9**

**Captain America Verses Quicksilver**

Several months had gone by since Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch had joined the West Coast Avengers. Alongside Captain America and Hawkeye, the twins had become instrumental figures in stopping many villains and acts of terrorism against humanity. Both Pietro and Wanda agreed that as far as places that there life had taken them, no place seemed more like "home" then being with the Avengers.

Quicksilver had gained a great deal of respect for the Captain. Pietro had a hard time understanding how Steve Rogers could have such a strong, virtuous, and pure core. Never in his life, had the mutant met someone who had such a good heart. At first, the silver haired speed demon thought this may be a sign of Captain America's weakness. In his experience, those who held such highly to the belief of "truth, justice, and the American way" or the ideal that "good triumphs all" ended up using such idealism to make up for their weakness. Quicksilver vividly remembered the day he was proven wrong about Captain America's supposed weakness.

"I don't understand why you're so insistence on locking these psychos up always?" Quicksilver continued to argued with the team leader upon arriving at their Avengers headquarters and mansion in California, after apprehending the villains Bullseye and Deadpool who were hired for an senator assassination attempt. "I know some people are worth saving, and some people deserve second chances…but with some of these guys that we throw in prison time and time again, wouldn't it be easier and _less_ dangerous for the world if we just put them out of misery?"

"I believe in the justice system." Captain America admitted, "If we keep fighting the good fight on our end, others will follow in their perspective roles. Prisons may not be perfect, but they'll continue to become more effective. Besides, we don't have the authority to end lives at our own discretion. We're heroes, not killers. Just because you and I have the power to kill, doesn't mean we _always _should."

"Whatever." Pietro shrugged his shoulders as he leaped onto a big comfy chair in the living room. "If all I did was throw a shield around and have slightly heightened senses compared to other people, I may believe the same thing. You know how it's always the lonely single guys that talk about not needing girlfriends, but everyone knows they're just full of it? Yeah, I think some people are the same way when it comes to justice. Those that can't take on the real baddies, just talk about how they fight the good fight by continuously giving them a second chance."

"Oh really?" Steve stopped what he was doing and turned around, raising an eyebrow. "I must confess that I don't have a lot of wisdom in the area of lonely single guys and girls, but I see a lot of flawed logic in your opinion about how my style of crime fighting is…mediocre at best."

"Look, don't have a hissy fit!" Quicksilver spoke with an arrogant chuckle, trying not to offend his leader. "You and Hawkeye do fine with your weapons, combat training, and such…but let's face it….I can move faster than any shield that is thrown at me, and my sister can control probability which usually ends in making things exploding, whether she means to or not. (Wanda rolled her eyes at this immature comment.) When it comes to getting the job done, mutants are just better. That's all I'm saying."

"Call me old fashioned, but I think there is a lot that can be said about the special training Clint and I have." Captain America replied calmly.

"I'm not calling you old fashioned." Quicksilver replied with a smug smirk, "Just wrong."

"Would you care to test out your theory in a sparring match, Pietro?" Captain America offered as he now smiled at his friend and team mate. "There's no doubt that you have extraordinary talent and amazing gifts…but after watching you "do your thing" for so long, I think you could benefit a lot from special combat training such as what Hawkeye and I have been given."

"You can't be serious!?" Quicksilver chuckled as he asked. "No disrespect, but me and you one on one? Really? I'd have your fancy shield out of your hand before you even thought about throwing it. With my speed, you couldn't touch me, Cap."

"I beg to differ. I'd also like to propose a gentleman's bet, if you're up for it, Speedy. Let's have a little spar downstairs in the training room and if I win, you have to agree to do daily combat training sessions with me for the next four months…without complaining, of course…If I win, I'll do all of your chores around the Avengers mansion for the next year. How's that sound, Maximoff?"

"It sounds like you really want to have some extra housework!" Quicksilver jumped up so fast with excitement, his movements were almost missed by the others in the room. "I'll be waiting downstairs, you take the next ten minutes to stretch, take a vitamin, or whatever it is you aged super soldiers do before battle."

"You're on, soldier." Captain America joked as Quicksilver sped away in a blue and white flash.

* * *

Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye entered the observation deck of the training room to watch the sparring match. Wanda turned to Hawkeye with a concerned look as she spoke.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Clint? My brother can get awfully competitive."

"If I were you, I'd be more worried about your brother then Captain America." Hawkeye spoke as he looked down at the two Avengers ready to have a match. "I've been with the Cap for a long time, and I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather go against the top three super villains in the world on my worst day then try to stand toe to toe with Steve on my best. He's not just a super solider because his great reflexes….Cap's got a very strategic mind. My guess is that if he made this bet with Pietro, he's already came up with a way to best your brother."

"Well, this wouldn't be the first time Quicksilver has rushed into something without fully thinking." Wanda admitted, "And it probably won't be the last."

* * *

"I'm ready to start whenever you are." Quicksilver said with a cocky grin on his face. "Just say the word, and I promise it will be over before it begins. Don't worry boss, I'll make it quick…I always do!"

"Go for it, then…tough guy." Captain America became very focused as he raised his shield and got into his fighting position.

Like a lightning bolt, Quicksilver charged forward and started to punch the super soldier in the face multiple times. Every time Pietro hit Captain America, he would run away, and then quickly return with another first. Wanda and Clint watched as Steve Rogers was struck several times in the face, grunting in pain as he stood his ground. The spectators could only see the blue and white coloring of Quicksilver, as he was moving so fast.

Finally Captain America grunted, tightened up, recovered from a punch, and pushed his shield forward intentionally. As he pushed forward, without seeing the speedster, the leader hit Pietro hard in the stomach with his shield. Upon momentarily taking the wind out of the mutant, Captain America, with one hand, threw Quicksilver over his shoulder and lunged on top of him, pinning down the speedster with his shield.

Pietro pushed upwards and side to side, struggling to break free of the stronger Captain America. The young adult cursed as he realized he was unable to break free. It become evident to Quicksilver that if this was a real fight, now would be when Captain America would hit him hard in the face, knocking him out. Pietro stopped moving with his pride taking a serious blow, as the Avenger realized he had lost the match.

"While you were hitting me, I began timing your punches." Captain America said with a smile as he helped Quicksilver up. "A little something the army taught me…and the throw I used to get you on the ground, that was a jujitsu move I learned years ago. Speed and power aren't everything, soldier. Sometimes you have to use your head."

After that, for the next several months Quicksilver studied under Captain America and learned a great many combat skills. More than that, he developed an even deeper respect for the team leader. From Pietro's point of view, the Captain was the real deal when it came to the ideal "good guy." He wasn't a faker, he was out fighting the good fight for the right reasons. Pietro admitted to himself that he'd probably never be that virtuous, but it was great being around. Somebody who was.

It worked out well that Quicksilver received some combat training and the team grew closer together through this little scuffle. Unknown to them at that moment, months later the West Coast Avengers would face a very difficult enemy and find themselves in very dangerous situations.


	10. The Ultron Invasion Part I

**Chapter 10**

**The Ultron Invasion Part I**

It was a dark and quiet night in New York City, as the villainous gang of mutants approached the abandoned dock house, the given meeting spot from their mysterious and unknown contact. The slender feminine fatale, and group leader paused uneasily before the group entered the building.

"Something about this just seems off." Mystique spoke, as she examined the building hoping find some sort of sign of a trap.

"C'mon Mystique." A deep masculine voice spoke from behind her. "I'm sure it's just another well paying deal. With the dangerous reputation we've been building lately, this person would have to be a total idiot to try to cross the New Brotherhood."

Mystique considered the words of her comrade in shiny silver armor, the mutant known as Avalanche. She turned around to her impressive team of malicious mutants consisting of Avalanche, master of seismic waves, the Blob, a large immovable man with not a lot of intelligence and a very short fuse, and Pyro, the manic fire controller.

"Perhaps you're right," Mystique agreed, still considering all possible dangerous outcomes.

"The way I see it," Pyro gave a nasty grin as he lit up a fireball in his hand, "there's really only one way to find out. Let's go in and meet this bloke already!"

"Let's be smart about it." Mystique spoke as she began walking to the door once more. "I'll go in first, if I press my distress signal, you all blast in ready to fight, got it?"

"I hope there's a fight." Blob punched his fist into his palm, as laughed in a way perfectly fitting for a dumb oaf.

* * *

All the lights were off in the building. Mystique entered into pitch black and cautiously walked further into the vacant dock house. She grimaced as she grew tired of the cloak and dagger routine of her contact and finally yelled out loud as to be heard by all.

"Whoever you are, in your message you said you had a very high paying job opportunity for the skill set that myself and my team possess. I'm getting tired of the ambiguity of this entire situation…show yourself and let's get on with it already!"

There was a long silence that for Mystique seemed to last thirty minutes, but really was only two or three. Suddenly, a large generator was turned on and the building became fully lit. As ceiling tiles lit up the room, Mystique saw that she was not standing in an abandoned dock house but a very technologically advanced lair. She looked around the building confused, very curious as to who this contact was. Within moments the disease of her curiosity was cured.

In the center of the room a levitating platform slowly descended with a notorious and infamous figure standing on it. Mystique looked at the robot known as Ultron from top to bottom. The tales she had heard about the crimes that this atrocity had committed rivaled even her own ledger. Mystique worked hard to mask her fear with a stern exterior.

"Mystique." The lifeless and robot voice spoke. "You have entered the building alone, no doubt wanting me to think you are alone and without your fellow mutant allies. Such deception would be a useful strategy among humans, but is irrelevant in my presence."

"Is that your way of saying you come in peace?" Mystique asked, unsure if she should be preparing for combat, "Or is that your way of saying you are strong enough to take care of me and anyone else I bring?"

"Both statements are factual." Ultron responded as he stepped of the platform onto the floor and walked forward. Mystique held her ground working hard not to tremble. "But they are minuet points. I have brought you here with a specific task in mind."

"And just what would that be?"

"I want to employ you and your mutant Brotherhood to go against the Avengers. Your powers will be a reasonable challenge for them to overcome. The battle would be very beneficial for my plan for this world."

"We'd be a _reasonable challenge_ for them to overcome?" Mystique mocked Ultron and his condescending robot mannerisms, "Why bother paying us if you don't think we could win? Clearly you haven't seen the firepower I have at my disposal with the Brotherhood…the Avengers would be no match for us!"

"Pride is another fault within the human race." Ultron interjected, "Time and time again you have fought against advisories such as the Avengers only to be defeated. Yet you still are confident you have what it takes to win. Such folly is one of the thousands of reasons why to insure true peace among humans, I must follow through with my plan of taking over this planet and enslaving your pathetic race."

"This is an example of what us _humans_ refer to as the pot calling the kettle black." Mystique hissed back at the powerful robot. "If what I've read is true, the Avengers have taken you down several times! Whatever, I know all about your MO, Ultron…you're all about enslaving the humans. The Brotherhood has no place in aiding such ridiculous plans by glorified toasters like yourself. Before long, the mutants will be the ones in charge…not you. I'll let myself out, you may want to go find place to go charge your batteries before you find someone else to do your dirty work."

Mystique turned around and began walking away. She paused suddenly as she heard Ultron's laser beams in his eyes begin to light up. The shapeshifter readied herself for a quick dodge as the robot spoke once more.

"Clearly mutants are just as flawed as homo sapiens. It appears attempting to use you for my own benefits will not work as I had hoped. For your insubordinate actions, survival through slavery will not be an option. You will be among the first of your kind to be destroyed."

Powerful beams flared out of Ultron towards Mystique, who quickly lunged out of the way, did a barrel role, and pushed the distress signal on her belt. Suddenly the left wall caved in as the Blob crashed through rushing at Ultron like a mad man.

"The appearance of your mutant allies was the most likely outcome I calculated." Ultron coldly spoke as he shot lasers at Blob, who kept running towards him unaffected by the massive blasts.

The Blob jumped onto of Ultron with such force that the ground broke and began to cave into a crater around the large unstoppable man. Upon thinking he had crushed the robot the Blob chuckled as he sat.

"You're not so tough." Blob taunted his presumed dead foe. "But then again, what change did a bucket of bolts have against me?"

Suddenly the fat man's impression shifted from victory to surprise as he began being lifted by cold metal hands that held tightly to his torso. Now holding the mutant over his head, Ultron spoke.

"On the contrary…after analyzing your power and fighting force, my change of victory over you is 127,000 to 1. It is you who has no chance of survival, mutant."

Ultron tossed the Blob into a large machine as if he weighed less than one hundred pounds. Upon impact, the computer blew up and electrocuted the Brotherhood member, who screamed loudly in pain. Blob moved to stand up, but before he could arise to his feet Ultron had lunged towards him and punched the villain in the stomach with the force that could level a small town. The immovable object fell once again on his bottom, temporarily stunned.

Behind Ultron, Avalanche and Pyro rushed in from the hole that Blob had created. Shooting seismic waves into the ground, several large pieces of debris shot forth towards the monstrosity of a robot. With a wave of flames from his powerful flamethrower, Pyro ignited all the flying pieces of metal that flew towards Ultron.

The lifeless villain uses his powerful eye lasers to shoot through the rocks flying towards him to hit both Avalanche and Pyro. The impact of the lasers sent the Brotherhood members flying into a wall painfully. After watching her allies put down, Mystique rushed towards the terrible android and began to punch and kick the metal being as hard and fast as she could.

Ultron did nothing but allowed the attacks to strike him. Mystiques moves didn't damage him at all. Knowing this, Mystique leapt over her advisory and threw several small metallic dots from her belt that stuck onto Ultron on several spots. After landing behind the villain, Mystique pressed another button on her belt buckle that caused all the dots to erupt in electricity. Ultron grunted in pain and sent a surge of laser light around his body, instantly distinguishing the lightning dots Mystique had tossed onto him. Turning his torso and head around, Ultron grabbed Mystique by the neck and raised her.

"The Avengers may have presented me with formidable challenge, but your group of super powered beings are nothing more than a nuisance." Ultron was about to snap the shapeshifter's neck, when he considered an alternate use for the mutants. "Nevertheless, I have decided to postpone your death sentences until I have exhausted my use of you."

Commanding his devices with nothing more than a mental command, Ultron caused massive capsules to fall from the ceiling to trap the four brotherhood members. Blob tried to punch the capsule to break it, but upon hitting the cage he was electrocuted by power ten times stronger then the force he used to hit the capsule.

"I'm tired of being shocked…" Blob moaned as he fell to the ground a third time, defeated.

"What are you going to do with us?" Mystique demanded as she hit the cage to, creating a small electric surge that shocked her back. The blue woman grunted in discomfort.

"You all will be preserved and then your powers will be absorbed into my ultimate creation." Ultron responded, without emotion as he created two large crates to emerge from the floor near the encaged mutants.

"With my newest creation will have the power needed to completely decimate the human race with nothing more than a calculated command from my own AI." Ultron spoke as he looked at the large locked crate. "After my many attempts to enslave humans only to be foiled by their own fragility…I have recently learned the only way to bring peace among mankind is complete and total obliteration of your race, sparing no one."

"If that thing is so power, then why did you need us to take out the Avengers?" Mystique mocked. "You're not making any sense, metal genius!"

"I never needed you to destroy the Avengers." Ultron corrected his captive, not even giving her dignity of eye contact. "I requested your service to battle the new team of West Coast Avengers. Data collected from your battle would give me the final piece of knowledge needed for my second greatest creation."

Now Ultron moved to his other crate and pressed a button that opened the top, revealing a tall robot with a red head and wearing a green suit and cape. Ultron continued to speak as he examined the robot.

"After analysis of previous attempts to overthrow this world, I devised several plans to wipe out the human race. In all of them, there was at least a 35% chance that the Avengers could once again foil my attempts. Considering this, I calculated a new plan…if the Avengers would always be interfering with my plans to save the human race through destruction then a separate plan would be needed to destroy the Avengers. Thus I created my 2nd ultimate creation, a robot who is designed with the sole purpose to destroy the Avengers. In my many battles against my greatest foes, I was able to copy my data of their strategies into his head…but there have been new additions that I have not accounted for yet…"

"Quciksilver and Scarlet Witch." Pyro interjected, now understanding completely what Ultron was trying to get the Brotherhood to do.

"Precisely." Ultron agreed. "Two mutants typically aren't much to fret over, but I grow tired of being overthrown by the Avengers. I desire a plan with 100% success rate, and by analyzing every hero, even the new ones…my Vision of success can become a reality."

"Well Hell!" Pyro exclaimed piping up with Australian enthusiasm, "If you needed someone to take out Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, why didn't you say so earlier...before you kicked our asses and lasered me in the chest! If my mates won't join you in your cause to take out those two, let me go do it myself! I have a score to settle with Pietro and his demon of a sister."

"Pyro you fool!" Mystique yelled at her subordinate. "This thing wants to copy our powers into a robot and destroy the human race! And you are offering to _help_ him?"

"I don't care what he's trying to do!" Pyro barked back, now his fiery temper and manic personality showing with his eyes. "I've waited a while for my payback on those two, and Ultron's given me a perfect opportunity…How bout it, mate? Send ole Pyro out there for a barbeque? I'll get you all the data you need…though I can't promise you're new robot will have the twins to fight against."

"An intriguing proposal." Ultron considered the flame thrower's offer. "Sending you out would allow me to get the data I needed…but there is a 85% chance that you would not last long enough in a battle with the Avengers for me to analyze all that I need to…"

"That's not true!" Pyro interrupted, only to be electrocuted by his capsule thanks to Ultron's mind.

"I will not send you alone…I have something else in mind that will serve as far more of a challenge to the ones known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Worry not mutant, you will still be able to extract your revenge. It will be a fitting way for your life to end, before I destroy all of humanity."

"Pyro…" Mystique grumbled in disgust at her ally. "What are you thinking?"

"I always thought that guy was a few birds short of a Cuckoo's nest…." Avalanche muttered as Pyro's capsule was lifted. "And now I know it for sure…."

* * *

A few hours later, on the West coast at the Avengers Mansion, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye's attention was immediately focused on a NEWS story from New York City. The three watched the TV as they saw Time Square being ignited in fire and a crazy man laughing as he had his own personal barbeque.

"Will you look at that?" Hawkeye said with a smile as he readied his bow and quiver. "Look Pietro, it's your old partner. What do you say we go pay him a visit, and get him to chill out with the whole…setting the city on fire thing?"

"He was NEVER my partner, really…" Quicksilver murmured, glaring at Pyro with disgust. "The only time me and Wanda have been caught doing our thing was when we went with _that_ guy. I always thought he was a loser, but it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Don't you mean the only time we got caught doing our _old_ thing?" Wanda interjected. "Come on Quicksilver, let's go extinguish that little fire starter."

"Looks like you guys will have to go at it without me!" Hawkeye spoke, as he checked his Avengers card. "Distress call from the Cap…luckily with three of us, we can be 2 places at once! You don't need me anyway, this is mutant business!"

"You'd probably just slow us down anyway, Robin Hood." Quicksilver interjected as he sped around Wanda and picked her up, before speeding away. "Go save Captain America, we'll take care of Pyro."


	11. The Ultron Invasion Part II

**Chapter 11**

**The Ultron Invasion Part II**

The flame throwing fiend laughed hysterically as he caused an inferno in the shame of rampaging bulls to consume Time Square, destroying vehicles and setting buildings ablaze, as NY citizens fled in terrored, or were consumed by the fires. The Blonde haired super villain knew it was only a matter of time before his actions would attract the attention of his sworn enemy and most hated rival. Pyro ceased his flames as he felt a strong gust of wind, as a blue and silver blur tornado swirled around the street distinguishing fires and moving people out of harm's way. Pyro turned around slowly and looked at Quicksilver who appeared with his sister jumping out of his hands. The member of the New Brotherhood smiled maliciously as he spoke.

"Well lookie who decided to leave his nice mansion on the beach of California to pay ole Pyro a visit!?"

"Let's not waste any more of our time then we have to Pyro." Quicksilver retorted, already annoyed by the mutant thug's presence. "You know that both me and my sister are more than enough to take you down. And with us together…yeah, you stand absolutely no chance. So, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"Please…" Scarlet Witch stared bitterly at the villain as her hands glowed red. "Pick the hard way."

"I like your style, babe." Pyro spoke as his eyes flared with bloodlust. "The "hard way" is always more fun anyway!"

With this comment, Pyro extended both his arms out towards Scarlet Witch and shot out a giant wave of flame in her direction. Wanda quickly leapt to the left and did a barrel role, dodging the blaze. Pyro laughed as he pursued her with his flames. As they came closer to the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver sped by and swiftly picked up his sister and moved her out of the way. Upon jumping out of her brother's arms to safety, Wanda shot a hex bolt towards the ground at Pyro causing a minor fissure. This would have knocked the flamethrower off his feet, if the villain had not quickly jumped backwards.

"You're too slow, Witch." Pyro spoke energetically, enjoying his small victory over the brown haired heroine.

"If it's speed you're worried about…" Quicksilver murmured as he readied himself to lunge at Pyro. "Perhaps I can keep you entertained, crazy!"

Pietro flashed forward like a lightning bolt, punching Pyro square in the jaw, causing the villain to fly backwards from the impact. As he moved backwards, the speedster kept up with his advisory punching him rapidly in the stomach, causing a small dent in his shiny red and yellow suit of fire proof light armor. Finally Pyro landed on the ground, having his wind knocked out of him as Quicksilver stood over his body, ready for a round two if necessary. Wanda ran up to be ready to aid her brother, as her hands once again glowed with hex bolts ready to fire.

"It's over, Pyro." Quicksilver taunted, "I told you this wouldn't work out for you. I should have simply stated you could pick the "easy" way or the "painless" way. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, you seem like the kind of idiot that likes to take a beating."

"You think you're so much better than me, Pietro." Pyro coughed as he regained his breath. "I once saw an equal in you…that's why I asked you and your hot sister to join me back in the day…but now I see nothing more than condescending prick who needs to be put in his place. You think you're so tough since you got the Avengers around to save your tail? Well, you're not the only one who's made some friends."

"What are you talking about, Pyro?" Scarlet Witch demanded. "Do you think this is some kind of game? You've set half of New York City on fire! For what? Just to get our attention?"

To this, the Brotherhood thug began laughing once again, "I like that, Wanda! A Game…yes this is our game, and…and the game hasn't even started yet! There is still so many things, and people, to burn…and I've been given some new toys to test out on you two…I hope you enjoy the fun we're having, because I'm just getting warmed up!"

"I hate these freaking fire puns…" Quicksilver spoke as he began to taunt Pyro more. His speech was cut off as the flame thrower hopped up and shot a massive surge of fire onto the ground, which launched Pyro in the air and away from Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The twins looked up at the maniac as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a metallic red headband that he placed on his head. Upon putting on the headband, several small wires ingrained themselves in Pyro's skull, causing the flamethrower to shriek loudly in pain. Once rooting, the headband's center gem began to glow with a yellow light.

"What are you doing, John?" Scarlet Witch asked, horrified at the sight she was witnessing.

"Just wait…" Pyro replied as he concentrated hard on his new ability, "You'll see!"

Pietro exchanged a look with his sister, both confused as to what the psychotic Pyro had up his sleeve. Their curiosity grew, as they began to hear massive rumbles. It was clear that something, or many "somethings" were coming their way. The heroes took a step back in fear as they witnessed ten very large robots fly into the scene and land, surrounding the twins.

Each robot looked identical: About eight feet tall, made out of solid red metal with bright yellow eyes that glowed similar to Pyro's headband. The robots had several flamethrowers built into their body. Each arm had a large flamethrower attached to it, each palm had a small one in the center, each shoulder had a turret that shot flame balls, and the robots' mouth also had the ability to breathe fire.

"This…" Quicksilver moved his head around staring at the robots closing in on him and his sister. "This may even the odds a little…"

"Meet the Scorcher 5000's!" Pyro yelled out excited about the barbeque that was about to take place. "I must compliment the legendary villain, Ultron, for his incredibly quick work on such machines. You know, he was about to kill me and the rest of the Brotherhood…but after hearing his plan and what he needed, I volunteered to come "play our game" with you two…and thanks to the robot's generosity, I have some new toys! Would you like to see what they can do?"

"If we say no…" Scarlet Witch spoke, "Would you put the robots away?"

"I don't know…" Pyro spoke as he put his finger on his chin. "I suppose you could always try!"

"Okay then…" Quicksilver replied, giving his sister a questionable look…nobody knowing how to handle this kook. "Um…no we would not like to see what you toys can do?"

"TOO BAD!" Pyro yelled out as he laughed hysterically, "Thanks to this headband, all I have to do is think a command, and the Scorchers will follow my orders!"

Suddenly, the robots raised their arms and sent out a massive wave of flames towards Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Wanda quickly hexed the ground around her to create fissures and a large earth barrier between her and the fires. Quicksilver began to spin so quickly that his body became a blue and silver tornado that repelled the fire flying his way.

"Nice try, kids!" Pyro laughed at the heroes' attempt to protect themselves from the flames. "But with this much fire at my disposal, there is no force on earth that will serve as a match for me! It'll take more than speed and some bad luck to keep me down this time!"

After speaking, Pyro raised his hand and clenched his fist, as his eyes turned bright orange with power. As the robots continued to release endless flames, the inferno manipulator created massive fire tornados to close in on Quicksilver, as he simultaneously send waves of blazes to melt the rocks that Scarlet Witch was hiding behind for protection.

Instinctively, as the fire tornadoes were too hot for Quicksilver's wind to distinguish, he ran quickly at out harm's way. After bolting out of danger, the speedster turned around and yelled out for his sister, as he realized Wanda was not safe yet.

The Scarlet Witch watched as he flames surrounding her slowly moved forward from all directions. Wanda closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to feel out for anything in the area that she could hex to save herself from the imminent death. She opened her eyes as she gravely realized that there was no way out of her mess. The flames suddenly stopped, less than of an inch from the Scarlet Witch. The woman dressed in crimson breathed heavily, as sweat dripped from her. She had never been so hot in her life.

Pietro cursed as he quickly ran towards Pyro who now stood on the top of a large pile of debris, controlling all the flame like a god. Knowing Pietro was closing in on him, Pyro caused a massive wave of fire to come between him and the speedster. Quicksilver jolted to an abrupt halt, as the fire wall leapt up near him.

"I'd slow down and think for once in your life, if I were you Quicksilver." Pyro taunted as he lowered the fire wall slightly, allowing the enemies to see each other. "With but a thought, I can use the Scorchers' flame to consume your beautiful sister. We're both selfish…but come on Pietro, isn't that a little much? Even for you?"

Quicksilver scanned the entire terrain around him that was flame scarred, as infernos floated around what was once Time Square in New York City. His eyes fell upon where his sister stood, being surrounded by an incredibly long and high inferno. Pietro thought hard trying to come up with an alternative to beat Pyro. The speedster knew that as fast as he was, those fires were to immense and to hot for even he to run past to save Wanda.

"Alright!" Quicksilver snapped in frustration, admitting defeat. "Leave my sister alone! What do you want? I'll play your game Pyro…it's me you did all this to get to anyway. What do you want?"

"Excellent." Pyro's voice went from its normal manic mode to that of an evil psycho who was high on a power trip. The flame controller knew that there was no force on earth that could touch him, and it was finally time for the mutant to extract his revenge on Quicksilver. "We're going to play a new game, Pietro. I call it, Burning Flesh."

Suddenly a large pool of fire surged towards Pietro and elevated next to him. Pyro continued to speak as Quicksilver listened, horrified at what the psychopath wanted him to do.

"The object of the game is to see what lasts longer, your flesh or my fires. To play, simply stick one of those quick little legs of yours in the fire!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Quicksilver responded, "There is no way I am going to do that, you sick freak!"

"Don't you get it?" Pyro snapped back, angry at the smart mouth on his nemesis. "For someone who is so fast, you're certainly not very quick in the head. _I am going to be burning someone_ and my choices are you or your sister…You decide who it is!"

Quicksilver looked back at Wanda, and noticed that Pyro was very slowly inching his inferno that surrounded his sister closer to her. After a moment's hesitation, the silver haired young adult cursed loudly hating that he had been defeated by this crazy thug. Quicksilver screamed loudly as he placed his left leg into the inferno and felt the heats consume his leg. Pyro laughed with pure joy as he directed the flames around Quicksilver's leg and watched the mutant's pain.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Ultron's lair the rest of the Brotherhood watched, slightly taken aback at Pyro's sick sense of humor within their capsules. Ultron had created a massive holographic screen that showed a live action video of the battle that his very tiny mechanical flies were flying around the battle scene filming. The cold inhumane robot watched the battle with no remorse, horror, or amusement. Ultron's eyes flickered as he was absorbing data and transferring it into one of the crates with his "2nd greatest" creation held inside.

"Damn, this is to far…even for Pyro!" Avalanche's stomach churned as he watched Quicksilver scream as his leg burned.

"I'm going to give him the beating of a lifetime when he comes back!" Blob grumbled, as he hit his fists together. "With all that power, Pyro should have been getting us out of here!"

"Let's go get him now, shall we?" Avalanche spoke as he pointed his hands at the ground he stood directly under. "I bet if I shoot a seismic wave directly under where I stand I can break out of here…"

"Not just yet…" Mystique snapped authoritatively at Avalanche. "Let that psycho have his fun, I know how those Avengers work and I wouldn't vote them out yet…Pyro, in his little mind, has thought he's on some kind of island with just himself and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. If experience has taught me anything, it's that when dealing with the Avengers…you're never just dealing with two…Give it some time, Pyro hasn't won yet."

"You think more Avengers will come and then they'll beat Pyro and make their way back here, don't you?" Avalanche predicted Mystique's strategy. "And then you plan on, with the help of the heroes, taking down Ultron. That's why you want me to wait, right?"

"Well, there's that…" Mystique agreed, "But I'd also love to see the Avengers be just a moment too late to the rescue and watch those worthless twins get burnt to a crisp. They were with the Brotherhood once, you know…but after failing a mission miserably, which led to the disappearance of our people's great leader Magneto…they defected and eventually joined the "good guys"…Morons, the way I see it they are going to get exactly what they deserve, it's just later then I would have hoped for."

"Analysis of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch complete." Ultron spoke, his voice very mechanical and analytical. "And with their battle strategies within my data base, the Vision is ready for its mission."

"That's it?" Mystique asked, impressed with Ultron's higher technology. "They've barely had a chance to fight, Pyro's been beating them down so much. That's all you needed? Goodness, why not watch a video of them saving California from a bank robbery or something? You stupid machine, always wanting to do things the hard way."

"I could try to explain to you the intricate details of my programming and data processing…" Ultron spoke, his head turning around completely to face the encapsulated villains. "But there is a 89% chance that such action would be a waste of my time as you would fail to understand such things. Instead, our time together would better be used to process your mutant powers to add to my greatest creation, the Harbinger."

Without allowing any of the Brotherhood members to speak against such actions, with but a thought, Ultron caused there to be a massive electrical surge within each capsule that created incredible pain for each mutant. As they were being tortured, DNA and energy from each mutant was being sucked away and taken into the crate that had what Ultron considered his "greatest creation."

* * *

"Pietro, no!" The Scarlet Witch screamed loudly, as she watched her brother yell in pain as his leg continued to burn. Wanda's eyes were covered in tears, as she couldn't bear such a sight. The mutant now was no longer burning due to surrounding flames, but the rage that built within her. Scarlet Witch found herself blacking out with hysteria, but that is not what Quicksilver and Pyro witnessed.

Without any warning, the Scarlet Witch screamed so loudly that Pyro had to cover his ears at such a high shriek. He turned to shut the annoying noise up permanently to see a disturbing sight. Wanda Maximoff was floating in the air with a red aura swirling around her body, as her eyes were glowing red with power. The aura spun around her and continued to move at an increased speed. Suddenly, the hex aura expanded in far in every direction, sending all the flames around the Scarlet Witch towards Pyro.

The flame thrower cursed loudly as he lost control of all the flames. It was as if Wanda had used Pyro's own abilities against him. With only a thought, Pyro was able to save himself by ordering all the Scorcher robots to leap in front of the mutant and absorb the flames. Each robot instantly exploded upon impact with the massive inferno. As the rubble fell to the ground and the smoke cleared, Pyro walked forward to an unconscious Scarlet Witch, ready to start his second mutant barbeque.

"That crazy broad…" Pyro grumbled to himself, "This is the SECOND time she's turned my fires against me…You may be hot, honey…but you'll find I'm a lot hotter. I like my women, extra crispy!"

Meanwhile Quicksilver laid on the ground writhing in pain. He moved his leg closer to his torso and noticed that despite the pain he thought he was having, he seemed to have no physical harm. Pietro looked over to his sister wondering what on earth she could have done that healed his body? Physically, it was like he had never been burned. Mentally however, Quicksilver found himself unable to recover as quickly and struggled to gain his strength to run towards Pyro to stop him from killing Wanda.

Pyro slowly walked towards Wanda's unconscious body, swirling a fireball in his hand, preparing for the kill. The flame thrower stood over the motionless beauty debating what part of her he wanted to burn first. The head? The torso? Maybe start with the legs and make his way up? Pyro always had such a hard time deciding on how to kill his prey. Suddenly, the mutant's mood changed violently, as he kicked the Scarlet Witch in the stomach.

"You bitch!" He raged at the Scarlet Witch, "You broke all my robots! They were one of a kind, now I'll never have them back! All because Pietro's sister decided to have a little hissy fit cause she didn't like my game? Not like you'll be here enjoy your little victory…so that leaves me, robotless and you dead! I hope it was worth it…"

Pyro raised his hand, ready to throw a fire ball. Before he could let go of the flame, three arrows hit him in the chest. Pyro coughed as he felt an immensely cold sensation as the arrows let out some kind of fluid that quickly froze around the flame thrower's chest. After having his chest frozen, Pyro watched as Hawkeye leapt from a small building down to kick the mutant in the stomach.

"You need to chill out, freak!" Hawkeye yelled as knelt down to check Wanda's vitals. Pyro slowly rose to his feet, ready to attack his ambusher. Hawkeye sternly looked at him. "You know, all this constant rage is just going to give you wrinkles."

"I may not have all the power I did a few minutes ago…" Pyro grumbled, still embarrassed that Scarlet Witch got the best of him in a surprisingly powerful move. "But you're no match for me. You should have stayed away, you would have lived longer!"

"Oh no…" Hawkeye mocked, "What ever will I do? How could I have thought to come here by myself…if only I had brought along backup to take on the _great and mighty Pyro_. Oh wait a second…"

As Hawkeye spoke, Captain America leapt from another building behind Pyro and hit him hard in the back of the neck with his Vibranium shield, knocking the mutant out cold. After kicking the villain to the side, Captain America rushed over to Quicksilver to see his condition.

"Pietro, are you alright?"

"Working on it…" Quicksilver slowly stood to his feet. "Glad you guys came when you did though."

"I thought you said this would be an easy win?" Hawkeye spoke as he picked up Scarlet Witch and moved closer to his two allies, looking around at the destruction of Time Square caused by Pyro and his robots. "I think it's safe to say that you got your butt kicked!"

"He had help…" Quicksilver muttered, hating the fact that he got beat by that Australian thug. "And I believe you guys know his new friend, Ultron."

"Ultron!?" Captain America exclaimed, "If he's involved, then sending a low class super villain like Pyro out here couldn't have been the extent of his plan of attack…We need to figure out what it is he's up to, and what's his next move?"

"Something tells me we're about to find out…" Hawkeye spoke as he nodded to the west. The heroes all turned to see a giant crate fall from the scene like a missile creating a large crater in NYC. Smoke seeped out of the crate as it opened slowly. The Avengers braced themselves for whatever was about to happen.


	12. The Ultron Invasion Part III

**Chapter 12**

**The Ultron Invasion Part III**

The West Coast Avengers surrounded the large crate, as fog subsided from it. The heroes were still unsure what to expect from the contents of this box. Captain America and Hawkeye learned never to underestimate Ultron and his evil plots. Could it be a bomb? Toxic gas? Some form of a massive technological takeover? All and so much more were fitting to the infamous super villain's style.

Finally, after much anticipation, the Avengers watched as a figure rose from the grave. He was clearly an android, showing no sign of emotion as he floated out of the crate. The robot's "skin" was crimson red, and he had solid yellow eyes, with a small yellow diamond on his forehead. The metal that served as this creature's "clothing" was painted green. He wore a helmet that only covered the top and side of his head, a long sleeved tunic, and pants. He had a yellow cape, yellow boots, and yellow gauntlets.

"So…" Quicksilver spoke, confused at this new figure on the battlefield. "Maybe this is a nice robot? It'd be great if he just…wanted to hang out, or something."

At the sound of a foreign voice, the android's eyes began glowing as he processed his creator's commands that were innate in his system. The robot began speaking with an emotionless metal voice.

"Operation Avengers Assassination Initiated. Mission Accepted!"

"Yeah, something tells me he is not a friendly robot." Hawkeye replied as he readied an arrow.

"I don't believe there is such a thing as a friendly robot." Captain America added as he raised his shield. "Avengers, take him down!"

"Voice Recognition." The android spoke, as Hawkeye shot a couple arrows and Cap threw his shield. "Data Entry 002 and 006: Captain America, Hawkeye…defense strategy initiated."

The projectiles flew into the air towards the robot, who was able to make his body translucent, using highly advanced phase shifting technology developed by Ultron. Captain America quickly ducked to evade the three arrows that flew in his direction, as Hawkeye jumped in the air and hopped over the vibranium shield.

"Taking steps to eliminate the targets." The android spoke emotionlessly as his eyes glowed brightly.

Yellow lasers came out of Ultron's creation's eyes and the diamond at the top of his head. The android did a 360 degree turn with his lasers activated, attempting to hit the heroes that surrounded him. Captain America was hit harshly in the stomach, Hawkeye rolled out of the way, and Quicksilver swiftly picked up his unconscious sister and sped away from the range of the laser.

After setting the motionless Scarlet Witch down safely, Quicksilver sped back towards the enemy with the intent to knock him down. With as much force as he could, Quicksilver punched the robot in the face, expecting him to fly into the remains of a tall building from the impact. Much to Pietro's dismay, the android simply stepped back upon impact. Quicksilver had not anticipated the robot possessing super strength among his many powerful abilities.

"What the heck are you?" Quicksilver asked, somewhat in shock of this monstrosity.

"I am the android known as Vision." The villain replied, "Ultron has programmed me to assist in the overall destruction of the Earth by killing the heroes known as the Avengers."

"Oh is that all?" Quicksilver responded sarcastically.

"Yes." Vision stated, not understanding the hero's sarcasum, as he punched him harshly in the stomach.

The impact of Vision's powerful punch was so hard that it caused Pietro to cough up blood, as two of his ribs broke. As the speedster began falling, Vision shot a laser out of his forehead diamond that sent Quicksilver flying into a pile of rubble.

"Ironman." Captain America toughed through his pain as he spoke into his communicator. "We're going to need some assistance…a lot of assistance actually."

"Copy that, Captain." Tony Stark's voice came in from the communicator. "Help is on the way."

"Resistance is futile." Vision spoke, as Hawkeye jumped to his feet and shot many arrows at the android's phase shifting body. "I have been programmed with the knowledge of all the Avenger's abilities, strategies, and battle tactics. There is absolutely no way for your team to gain victory over me."

"Don't be such a Debbie Downer!" a voice spoke in from behind Vision as a hero in red and blue webbed tights swung in and kicked the android in the head, knocking him forward. "You just met us…we have a habit of surprising our enemies! Like the way I just kicked you in the head…I bet you didn't see that coming, _Vision_."

"Data Entry 010, Spiderman." Vision analyzed out loud, as he turned to face his foe. "Superior reflexes, easy weakpoint is to interrupt while the human speaks excessively."

"I wouldn't say I speak exc…" Spiderman's retort was cut off, as Vision shot a laser that hit him in the stomach, knocking him far away.

"Hey Mr. Can Opener." Ironman called out from behind Vision and high in the air. The android turned to face the hero. "Try my arsenal on for size."

"Data Entry 001." Vision responded, as Ironman begun shooting severeal rounds of pulse waves and missiles in his direction. "Ironman...effective tactic: destruction of vital points in his armor."

The android began to swiftly float in the air towards Stark, still unable to be harmed by any of his projectiles. Once Vision was close enough, Ironman threw a punch, which went right through the translucent villain. Vision became solid, and quickly grabbed both wrists of Ironman. With great strength, he crushed the gauntlets in specific areas that were vital to pulse firing. While still holding the metal hero, Vision pulled Stark close to him gave him a harsh headbutt in the cranium. Stark's helmet cracked, causing the face mask to fall off. In a final attack, Vision threw the hero towards the ground and shot him with his laser eyes set to full power in the chest, causing a massive explosion of energy in Ironman's core.

"Damn…" Ironman spoke through the pain as he laid on the ground, "I never thought of putting those attacks together. That freak really had my number."

More Avengers came to attempt to aid in the battle but Vision seemed too strong for any of them. Hawkeye attempted to shoot freezing arrows at the robot, who used his laser to send them back at the hero and have him frozen in place. Black Panther attempted to sneak up on the robot, only to be discovered based on the android's heightened hearing. Vision physically pummeled the Panther and threw him off a building, injuring the hero severely. Wasp was easily swatted down onto the ground as she tried to use her energy to destroy Vision's lasers. Try as they might, the heroes could not attack Vision in a way that he had not already anticipated.

Not far from the battle, a certain fire manipulating mutant awoke from his unconscious state and noticed the carnage before him. The villain's body was hurting, and he decided that he'd rather not participate in this fight, even though it appeared that the Avengers were easy pickings for any assassin at this moment. Pyro groaned in pain as he remembered the large headband that was implanted in his head. The device no longer had any function, as all the Scorchers were damaged beyond repair. To make matters worse, the headband itself was damaged so it was sending short electrical bursts to Pyro's skull that were very painful. Upon staggering a few blocks and getting fed up with the pain, the flame thrower decided it was in his best interest to rip off the headpiece. Feeling the cords tear from his skull, Pyro yanked the device off and yelled loudly in agony. Not long after that, the mutant collapsed once more due to pain and fatigue in front of a hospital.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Ultron's lair, the mastermind behind this robotic invasion watched as the Avengers were being bested by his creation. As he was a robot, Ultron showed no sign of satisfaction or any kind of sick pleasure of watching his enemies fall. He simply watched his giant screen intently, calculating his next move.

"The time has come to unleash my ultimate creation." Ultron spoke, as he turned to his larger crate and mentally ordered it to open. "Harbinger, I command you to go forth and destroy."

The crate opened and another android levitated out as the smoke cleared from the box. This machine was slightly taller and bulkier then Vision. It's body was made of solider white metal with several black linear designs. The robot looked more like an alien with a pointy skull then a human. It had thin evil looking red eyes, and sharp razor teeth. It was clear because of how Harbinger was designed to look more like a skeleton of something extraterrestrial, that Ultron meant for him to end the human race while inspiring fear among the populous.

"I must thank you for your participation in this undertaking." Ultron spoke to the captive Brotherhood members, as Harbringer's systems were turning on. "I was able to use some of your mutant DNA to add your special abilities to the disposal of this robot. He was previously more powerful than any other robot that the human race had ever encountered…you simply helped me make him better."

"There's no way in Hell that the world is going to end by some toaster that has all of our powers." Mystique spoke, she turned to Avalanche before giving her order. "Avalanche, it's time to break us out."

"With pleasure!" Avalanche spoke as he sent seismic waves towards the bottom of his capsule. The power was enough to level an entire state, while was just enough power to break the Brotherhood out of Ultron's tube prisons.

Mystique continued to order as he jumped out of the shatter glass. "Blob, go break that thing before it has a chance to turn on completely!"

"Piece of cake!" Blob smiled stupidly as he rushed towards Harbinger with the intention to pound it into oblivion.

"One of humanity's most troubling qualities is their inability to learn from past mistakes." Ultron spoke as he floated onto a higher level, allowing his new creation space to work. "The Brotherhood loses nearly every battle it enters without ever perfecting their battle tactics. You were easily imprisoned before, and now you'll be easily destroyed."

As the terrifying machine was still booting up, Blob began pounding it in the face as hard as he could hoping to knock its head off. The robot was completely unaffected. Finally, the machine gained consciousness and grabbed Blob's fist, and started to exert him pressure, crushing the massive man's hand.

"As you can see," Ultron spoke from high above. "My creation has your strength, with the addition of it's own. Your force won't even come close to overpower my Harbinger."

"Then we'll just have to bury him with this whole place then!" Avalanche spoke in rage, tired of all these machines and the damage they were causing. "I've had just about enough of all this."

Avalanche shot tremendous tremors towards Harbinger who quickly turned, as it continued to best the Blob's strength. The robot sent more powerful waves towards Avalanche that created a massive chasm in the ground that would have sucked the mutant into the earth, had Mystique not leapt in to catch his arm and pull him back to the terrain.

"The three of you will be the first to be destroyed by my Harbinger of the annihilation of the human race." Ultron spoke casually. "In a few short hours, my programmed mission of fixing the human race will finally be complete."

* * *

Despite the damage caused by the Vision, the Avengers continued to fight with everything that they had. Upon returning to his feet, Captain America ran and grabbed his shield, and broke Hawkeye free from the ice. Quicksilver slowly recovered and rushed up to a building to make sure Wasp and Black Panther were okay. Spiderman swung down to a severely injured Ironman to make sure he was recovering alright.

"OK, so I'd say round 1 goes to the Vision." Spiderman said as he crouched down to check on the hero. "But we can pull through this, right?"

"We have to…" Ironman grunted. "But if he knows every single one of our battle strategies, how can we attack him?"

"I guess we could always try to do something that we'd never do…" Spiderman said, "I left all my pies at home, otherwise I'd love to pie him in the face! Vision would never see that coming."

"Something we'd never do…" Ironman contemplated those words as his eyes fell upon a broken arm piece of one of the Scorcher robots that had a flamethrower attached to it. "That could work!"

Ironman rolled over, pushing through the pain, and took his right armored gauntlet off. He put his hand in an opening of the Scorcher arm and spoke to his computer. "Jarvis, can you override the controls on this weapon?"

"Of course I can, sir." Jarvis replied, "Please give me a moment….System Overrided."

"Excellent." Ironman spoke, as he raised the flamethrower up and pointed it at the Vision. "Hey Vision, try this on for size!"

The Vision turned his attention from Captain America to Ironman. His system returned to processing Ironman strategies, which made him completely unprepared for a large fireball to come flying in his direction. The impact of the powerful fireball pushed the robot back, smoke flying from his suit from the burning that quickly subsided.

"So if he's used to us using our moves," Spiderman spoke thoughtfully, "we'll just have to switch playbooks!"

Upon that statement, Spiderman hopped high in the air, doing an aerial, and used his web to grab Hawkeye's quiver and bow.

"Hey!" Hawkeye exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

"I've always wanted to try some of these arrows out." Spider said as he loaded an explosive, a lightning, and an freeze arrow to the bow.

Spiderman released the arrows towards Vision, who transferred his programming to his Spiderman style. The ice lightning arrow electrocuted the surprised robot, as the ice arrow froze him, and finally the explosive arrow caused the robot serious damage.

"I get it!" Hawkeye spoke with a smile. "If he knows all of our strategies, we'll just have to trade them to throw this thing off!"

The archer ran to Captain America, "borrowed" his shield, and rushed towards Vision and started to hit him with the shield. Vision was unable to defend from this tactic, as he was expecting a ranged strategy from Hawkeye.

Following Hawkeye's lead, Quicksilver smirked as he remembered the many training sessions he had with Captain America about close combat fighting. He sped towards Vision and begun pummeling him and throwing him to the ground in a way that was customary to only Captain America.

"Manual Override engaged!" Vision spoke as he was being beat by the Avengers. "Gathering collective strategies and fighting on one's own merit."

"What's that mean?" Quicksilver said as the Vision phase shifted to avoid physical damage.

"It means that thing has decided to think for itself and have an original thought for once." Captain America spoke as he jumped down to the battle scene and grabbed his shield from Hawkeye, "Prepare yourselves men!"

Vision used his lasers to shoot Captain America and Hawkeye, though he missed Quicksilver due to his tremendous speed. Black Panther rushed in from behind to attack the robot, but was kicked hard in the stomach. As this was happening, Spiderman swung from a building and shot several webs on the Vision's face, trying to disable his sight.

Using his sensors to detect rising heat signatures coming his way, Vision strategically flew towards the flame that Ironman was launching to him, and allowed his face to be hit to get rid of the webs blinding him. Vision then used his forehead diamond to shoot Ironman in the arm, destroying his flamethrower, as his eyes shot lasers to shoot down Wasp before she was able to launch her bee stings at him.

Vision looked around at the Avengers struggling to recover from the beatings they had received. The android was intrigued at the will to live that these humans possessed.

"This is purely illogical." Vision spoke as he watched each hero rise to their feet. "I calculate that you all have a 0.007% chance of survival and yet you humans continue to fight. I…don't understand."

"Better start worrying about your chance of survival instead of our own." A female voice spoke from behind Vision.

Before the android could turn to identify who spoke, a red beam was thrown towards a stack of cars that had been tossed on top of each other due to Pyro's previous manic barbeque. Against many odds, the cars all managed to fall down on top of the unsuspecting Vision. Seeing his golden opportunity, Ironman aimed a tiny shoulder missile as Vision was covered with vehicles. Within seconds of aiming, the hero took his shot. The missile blew up the many vehicles causing a massive explosion. As the smoke slowly cleared all the heroes surrounded the scene, everyone wondering if their battle was over.

Unfortunately, the smoke began to fade away revealing that Vision was still operational and standing. He had successfully turned around to lay his eyes on the thrower or the hex bolt, a recently recovered Scarlet Witch. Vision was unable to explain what happened within his system at that moment. He had a perfect shot on the mutant, but upon seeing the woman (even knowing of her existence based off the received data in his processer) Vision was unable to quickly shoot his laser.

"A momentary glitch." The robot spoke as he quickly shook his head, recovering his mission of Avenger Annihilation. "Mission continued."

Vision released his yellow eye beams at Scarlet Witch with the intention of destroying her, but Quicksilver rushed in front of the beams and screamed as the shot hit him square in the chest. The mutant fell to the ground with much pain and was barely able to move. The android found himself once again perplexed as he watched Quicksilver slowly rise to his feet, as the other Avengers surrounded him.

"Hang in there, Quicksilver!" Captain America encouraged his team mate. "So we've all seen that this thing isn't invincible…let's take him down!"

"Round 1 went to the scary red robot…" Hawkeye said as he readied another arrow, "Round 2, went to the Avengers…anyone want to take bets on Round 3?"

"I'm betting it will be the _last_ round!" Ironman said as his systems began to recover, and he began floated over Vision readying his chest pulse beam."

"What…" Vision looked around at the heroes gathering to continue to the battle. "How…can you keep fighting? Alert! Cognitive system appears to be damaged. Chance of survival has decreased from 99.7% to 20.4%...most effective strategy…Retreat."

Without a moments warning, Vision launched into the air at high speeds, blowing past Ironman and leaving the battlefield. With a moment of awkward silence, all the Avengers exchanged confused looks. How could such a violent battle end so…uneventfully?

"He…ran?" Spiderman asked, "I didn't know robots could get afraid. Guess it makes sense, I mean look at us!?"

"That was…to easy." Captain America spoke as he reflected on the events.

"Too easy?" Quicksilver coughed as he slowly made it back to his feet. "You call getting burned, battered, shot at, and injured…too easy? What else could have happened in this battle that would make you consider it "moderately difficult", I wonder?"

"The battle wasn't easy…" Ironman added, "but what Cap means is this whole plot from Ultron…it seems to easy. There has to be something else going on. His MO is always the same, destroying the human race. Vision, as he called himself, only seemed interested in fighting us."

"Avengers!" A tough voice came in to all the communication links that each hero wore in their ear. The voice was universally recognized as S.H.I.E.L.D director, Nick Fury. "I don't know where the hell you've all been, but we have a serious problem! There is a robot that has just appeared in the US that is using a high frequency wave that is able to level entire cities within minutes. From what we can tell, it's objective seems like total destruction of anything and everything. My people are on it…but we could use a hand."

"That sounds like Ultron's work to me." Hawkeye said, processing this information quickly. "I guess Vision was just a distraction for us."

"What are we waiting for?" Quicksilver asked, impatient within seconds of the previous comment. "Who's up for beating up another robot? Come on, we're supposed to STOP things like this from happening right?"

"Quicksilver is right…" Ironman said as he floated higher in the air. "There is no rest for the weary…Avengers, let's move out!"

* * *

**A/N: **_In case anyone is curious. Harbinger is an OC of mine. He probably won't be used again after this Chronicle but I like to let you all know when I include made up characters to avoid any confusion with what's Marvel and what's not. If you fall in love with him as a villain, feel free to use him but please let me know mainly so I can read the piece you write about my creation! Well, I hope you enjoyed Ultron Invasion Part III...stay tuned for the conclusion of this Chronicle in the next chapter! _

_PS: Feel free to drop me a review or message letting me know what you think of my story...I treasure your all's comments!_

_Thanks! _


	13. The Ultron Invasion Part IV

**Chapter 13**

**The Ultron Invasion Part IV**

Within thirty minutes of Ultron's ultimate weapon, Harbinger's release, the entire state of California had almost completely been decimated. The terrifying robot would fly over any city or small town, and then unleash a very powerful wave of sound energy that was strong enough to shatter glass, level buildings, and bring the populous to their knees in agony. From then, the destruction of the town would kill all those who were unable to run to safety. Within thirty minutes of Harbinger's introduction to the world, there had been several hundred casualties.

Ultron flew behind the death machine watching his creation fulfill its objective, which would in turn fulfill Ultron's objective. The android monstrosity responsible for the creation of Vision and Harbinger had been created several years ago by Ant-Man, aka Henry Pym, with the objective of bringing supreme peace to the human race. Ultron was one of many "Ultron series" of robots that aided the Avengers with protecting the world, and especially guarding the captive super villains. In an alien invasion, Ultron 6, the sole survivor of the Ultron series, had been reprogrammed unintentionally by alien tech in an inexplicable way. It was in this moment when Ultron came to the conclusion that human beings were constantly the reason for their own demise. Their hate, greed, pride, and over all _humanity_ as the android saw it was the reason that humanity never was safe or close to a state of complete tranquility. To Ultron the solution was simple: In order to fulfill his programming to bring peace to humanity, he would have to destroy humanity entirely.

Ultron calculated that with the Avengers now gone completely, thanks to Vision, in a matter of twenty-four hours, 87.3% of all humanity would be destroyed. In two days, his objective would be completely. Unfortunately for Ultron and fortunate for humanity, the android was unaware that Vision had failed his mission.

This great truth was soon realized by the android when the Avengers initiated a sneak attack on Harbinger in the middle of his decimation of Los Angeles. It began with arrow that was shot into Harbinger's chest, into an area instrumental for its Frequency Wave Generator. The sound wave that was leveling buildings was temporarily silenced, as Hawkeye's arrow exploded in the android's torso.

As the smoke from the small explosion subsided, the Avenger's jet, piloted by Wasp began opening fire on Harbinger with every laser and gatlin gun it was equipped with. Simultaneously Ironman leapt from the back of the jet into the sky and from a safe distance, launched his chest repulsor beam. The massive blue beam of destruction surged out of Ironman's chest and onto Harbinger. There wasn't much in existence that could survive such a powerful attack. Unfortunately for the Avengers, Harbinger was one of the few things that could. Seeing the machine still operational, Ironman spoke into his communicator.

"Scarlet Witch, you're up…see what you can do about shutting this thing down!"

A blue and white flash of light whizzed into the city and zipped up onto the tallest building near where Harbinger was being ambushed. Quicksilver stopped running once upon the building, and let his sister down to her feet. Wanda concentrated on Harbinger, trying to find a way to cause the robot to self destruct. After a moment or two, the mutant opened her eyes with a grim look and spoke into her communicator.

"Scarlet Witch to Avengers, I don't believe it…but there is absolutely 0% chance of this robot blowing itself up upon overheating or any other form of possible destruction. I'm sorry, but Ultron has really covered his bases."

"It was worth a shot." Captain America's voice came through the comm link. "Brace yourself, Avengers! That thing looks like it's about to launch a counter attack!"

Steve Rogers called it on the spot. Having given Harbinger a moment of no pain, hoping that Scarlet Witch could cause it to blow up, the Avengers let their enemy charge up its frequency wave. Harbinger clenched both fists together and pushed it's chest forward, as an aura of powerful sound was launched from every direction of its body. The power was strong enough to push Ironman down to the ground, knock Hawkeye off the small platform that the Avenger's jet had sent down with him on it, destroy the jet itself sending Wasp soaring towards the ground violent.

Quicksilver cursed as he sped down the building and towards the area that the three heroes were falling towards. Pietro began running in circles at incredible speed, creating a blue tornado that sent wind upwards, slowing the fall of Ironman, Hawkeye, and Wasp. The three heroes were caught by Quicksilver's whirlwind and upon gently hitting the ground, they jumped to their feet.

"That weapon has to be neutralized if we're going to have any hope of getting close to that thing." Ironman spoke, not just to the allies around him, but to everyone else on the team because of his ear piece.

"Help is on the way." Captain America's voice was heard once again. "We think we have a potential solution to that problem. Keep it busy!"

"Um, we're going to have a hard time with that." Hawkeye spoke, as he nodded in the sky for the others to notice what he observed. The Avengers on the destroyed street of L.A looked upward to see Ultron descending near them.

"Avengers, you have managed to survive my weapon that was designed to destroy you all." Ultron spoke with no emotion. "An unfortunate miscalculation indeed, but this is no reason for concern. My sensors indicate that you and your planet's rate of survival has only increased from 0.006% to 1.5%."

"All things considered, that's not a bad jump!" Ironman spoke, arrogance seeping from his voice. "Guess that's why they call us Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

"In a matter of moments you will be referred to in nothing but past tense." Ultron retorted. "Your destruction will be quick, and most likely very painful."

"Quick, huh?" Pietro replied his tone showing signs of frustration and impatience. Between the super charged Pyro and his Scorchers, the Vision, and now Harbinger and Ultron…the mutant speedster was beginning to be over robots for the day. "I heard you were a pretty good match for the Avengers back in the day. Let's see how you fare against the strongest one of them all! How's this for, _quick!_"

"Quicksilver no!" Ironman called out, but too late to have any effect on his cocky ally. Before Tony Stark could even finish saying "Quicksilver", the young man had sped towards Ultron ready to throw punches.

With no words, Ultron simply raised an invisible electric force field that in a matter of seconds electrocuted the mutant, who was send flying backwards and on his bottom. Quicksilver shook his head, doing his best to recover from the intense pain.

"Your attacks are useless against me." Ultron callously spoke, "And now my Harbinger of humanity's destruction will bring you all to an immediate end with its next frequency blast."

The heroes looked to the sky to see Harbinger charging up for its next frequency blast, and based from the amount of sound energy that was being generated in the surrounding aura, it would be much more powerful than before.

"Uh, Cap?" Ironman asked, "How's that "potential solution" coming? And…no rush, but you could you bring it faster?"

"Hey you vile pile of rust and metal!" Captain America called out from the rooftop of a building that was on the other side of Harbinger from where Quicksilver and the others stood. "Here's one more piece of metal for you!"

Upon finishing his comment, the hero chucked his vibranium shield which flew through the sky and hit Harbinger in the back of the head with great precision and amplified power thanks to the vibrating sound waves surrounding the robot. Ultron's creation quickly turned around to notice Captain America, analyzing him as a greater threat, and launched towards the hero with the intention of murder.

As Harbinger flew towards Captain America who caught his returning shield and raised it for defense, glass shattered from the apartment window directly under the roof where Rogers stood, and Black Panther leapt out with purple glowing vibranium blades ready to slash apart the robot. Not being completely surprised by the new assailant, Harbinger was able to raise his arms in time to defend against the attacks. In midair, Black Panther did his best to throw out several almost perfect striking combinations to take down the robot. Unfortunately, Harbinger's overwhelming strength was to much for his adversary. Panther was eventually thrown into the Captain America with great force, knocking the two onto the ground of the edifice's rooftop.

Harbinger's semi-organic metal arms shifted from fists to sharp blades as he flew towards the heroes planning on impaling them with his swords. As the robot was very close to killing Captain America and Black Panther, Spiderman swung in from behind, wrapped his legs around Harbinger and doing a front flip, threw the machine onto the ground harshly. Harbinger quickly recovered to his feet and turned his attention to Spiderman, who then shot several webs into the chest of Harbinger.

"Bad robot!" Spiderman scolded Harbinger, "Didn't you're mother ever teach you that it was rude to use incredibly powerful sound wave generators to destroy entire states?" The wall crawler then looked down at the ground towards Ultron, who was in mid battle with the other Avengers. "Well…considering Ultron is the closest thing you have to a mother, I'd guess probably not!"

Harbinger attempted to use its frequency generator to destroy the heroes, only to be electrocuted from his chest. Spiderman hopped down onto the ground and shook his finger at the robot, continuing his ridiculous humor at the metal object's expense.

"Uh uh uhh!" taunted Spiderman, "I whipped up a special batch of webbing just for you on the way here, after seeing a video of how you have been destroying cities. My webs have electromagnetic nanites laced in them that shorted your generator. Keep using it if you want, you'll just eventually blow yourself up!"

Meanwhile, on the ground front, Quicksilver, Ironman, Wasp, and Hawkeye were working together to try to best Ultron. The heroes were currently on top of the battle, but the android wasn't making it easy for them. Ultron was currently surrounded by the four heroes, and analyzing his next plan of attack.

"Did you hear that?" Ironman asked Ultron as he pointed to the building that Harbinger was fighting the other Avengers on. "Our boys up top are mopping the floor with your destruction robot, or whatever. Come on Ultron…we all know how this ends. You create something that has incredible power that _could_ destroy all of humanity…we break it…you come at us trying to finish the job, we break you…and somehow you narrowly escape and sometime later repeat the process…Come on, why not give up now and we can all go home and watch the game or something? You _know_ you're going to lose!"

"Humanity's shortsightedness." Ultron's voice droned in, unharmed by Ironman's taunts. "Yet another one of your flaws that always leads your race to further disaster. The frequency wave generator was Harbinger's most effective weapon when it came to destroying a massive amount of objects and people in a short amount of time, but it is by no means it's only weapon." Upon finishing that sentence, Ultron began to press buttons on his arm and spoke once more. "Harbinger's Omni-Beams are now functional. Your fellow Avengers will not last long against such destructive weapons. As I stated before, your chance of survival is only 1.5%."

"Captain watch out for something called an Omni…" Ironman's warning was cut off early by a massive surge of red energy that shot through the building and made a massive hole in not just L.A's street, but the earth itself.

Luckily all three Avengers battling the machine had jumped out of the robot's lethal eye beams just in time to not be incinerated. Harbinger once again launched itself in the air and now using only it's eyes, launched crimson destructive beams attempting to destroy the Avengers, chasing them with the lasers. Captain America attempted to block the laser with his shield, but the beam was powerful enough to heat up the shield and send it flying far from the super soldier. Before being completely obliterated from the beam, Captain America was wisped away by Quicksilver who ran super fast to the scene to save his most respected ally.

"That was a close one." Captain America sighed heavily. "Those beams are just too fast…for most of us that is."

"What are you saying?" Quicksilver asked, wondering if the Captain had a plan.

"It's not much but you seem to be faster than Harbinger's destructive eyes." Rogers said thoughtfully, "That's not MUCH of an advantage…but it's something."

"Perhaps we can work with it." Scarlet Witch's voice came from the Avenger's communicator. "Pietro, I can sense some kind of energy residue that those beams are leaving…Because as powerful as those Omni-Beams are, I think there is some kind of chance that they can blast out of control."

"So you are saying you can turn his beams against him?" Quicksilver asked.

"Yes, but I need him to release a lot of energy." Scarlet Witch replied. "Which means he'd have to be shooting something for a while, without hitting it of course."

"Say no more." Quicksilver spoke with a smile, understanding his sister's plan. "I'm on it!"

Quicksilver zoomed to another building far from Harbinger, where debris from the Avengers jet had fallen.

"Hey ugly!" Quicksilver yelled at the robot from the other building. "Let's see what you got!"

Not having any response from Harbinger, Pietro decided to start chucking the smaller pieces of the jet's remains at the robot so fast it was as if Harbinger was being attacked by a low quality machine gun. Causing minimal damage, Harbinger turned to the mutant now recognizing him as a threat and began to power up its Omni-Beams. Seconds after the sound of the lasers heating up, Harbinger sent a red stream of destruction towards Quicksilver, who began to move at incredible speeds around the robot, dodging his friends, of course.

"Keep going, Pietro!" Scarlet Witch said as she raised both her hands and concentrated on the laser residue that she was sensing.

"What kind of mutant power did you say she had?" Black Panther asked Captain America as he watched Wanda glow in a red aura, her eyes also becoming red.

"Apparently she can hex luck to her favor with anything she does." Captain America responded.

"I have never seen anything like it." Panther replied, "Such a power, it seems like what she does with it transcends hexing luck. It is a good thing she is on our side."

"I'd say so." Captain concluded.

Finally Scarlet Witch had identified that there was enough beam residue to cause a cataclysmic reaction resulting in an overload of Harbinger's power. Wanda opened her eyes, which now glowed red and yelled out to her team. "Everyone get out of Harbinger's range NOW! I'm about to set off what could be best described as an Omni-Beam-Bomb."

Quicksilver ran super fast in a straight line, miles away as the other heroes moved in opposite directions as well. Even Ultron took precautionary measures by flying high into the sky and raising a powerful force field. After making sure her allies were safe, Wanda unleashed the power creating a red surge of energy to explode in a massive oval radius that covered Harbinger and everywhere he had released his lasers. The explosion leveled the entire area and created a massive crater where the Avengers hoped they'd be able to see Harbinger's "lifeless" remains.

As the red, possibly radioactive, fog subsided, everyone was terrified to see Harbinger standing, seeming unscathed by the massive explosion. Ultron levitated down near his creation and observed his perplexed prey. The android took this opportunity to brag on his own brilliance.

"This is what I believe most humans would consider an ironic twist of fate. Prior to being released, the last bit of power I gave Harbinger was the powers of several Brotherhood members who were captive and defeated in New York, after refusing to do the task I required of them. I had thought absorbing DNA remnants of such weaklings would be useless, or "overkill" as humans would call it, as Harbinger is the single most powerful android created…but it was the mutant power of indestructability of the one called Blob that ended up saving Harbinger. An unfortunate event indeed…I calculate your chance of survival has now been reduced to 0.003%"

"That .003 chance is reason enough for us to keep fighting, Ultron!" Captain America spoke as he jumped down to a pile of rubble and grabbed his shield, which had cooled down. "That's why us "weak" humans never lose to you. We don't give up, even when we have what you may consider no chance of survival. This persistence may seem like an annoying quark of humanity to a lifeless bucket of bolts like yourself, but to me it's what makes serving America such a honor!"

"What he said…" Quicksilver added, as he prepared himself for another fight with the dynamic duo of destructive robots. "Minus the "pro-America" part."

"Inspiring words from a weak group of inferiors." Ultron spoke as he observed all Avengers surrounding him and Harbinger. The android also noticed that Scarlet Witch stood at somewhat of a distance from the androids, and was readying her hex bolts. In a second's calculation, Ultron identified the female mutant as the group's largest threat. With a simple thought command processed, Ultron ordered Harbinger to focus its fire on the Scarlet Witch.

After giving his robot a command, Ultron send an energy surge from his body based on his force field technology that was strong and quick enough to knock all the Avengers around him, minus Scarlet Witch who was just far enough away, to their feet. The crimson clad mutant was startled to see her allies fall so quickly, and realized the terrifying and powerful robotic weapon was flying her way with murderous intent.

"Once your probability shifter is destroyed" Ultron spoke, "The rest of you will fall with great ease."

Moments from her death, Scarlet Witch was quickly saved by a flying figure appearing, picking her up, and taking her out of harm's way. Wanda looked up to see the being holding her was none other than the android Vision, who had been her enemy not much more than an hour before. She could not explain her feeling when she looked into the yellow and somewhat lifeless eyes of her rescuer. Despite the destruction Vision had caused previously to the Avengers, Scarlet Witch felt no fear. Destroy the trouble with robots in the previous battles, and how everything associated with Ultron had been used to attempt to destroy humanity, Wanda felt she could trust Vision. It was as if she had an unspoken and unexplainable bond with the creature. Scarlet Witch wondered as she was just narrowly saved from death by Vision, did he feel the same connection? Was that why he saved her against his own teammates?

"Vision…" Ultron spoke, his internal computers analyzing the current situation attempting to understand this strange turn of events. "You are saving a life form that you are programmed to destroy…there must be a…"

"Flaw in my programming." Vision completed his creator's sentence as he gently placed Scarlet Witch down on her feet and turned to look eye to eye with Ultron. "I am Vision, created to destroy the Avengers to aid in Ultron's ultimate goal of purging the Earth of humanity which in turn will bring ultimate peace to humans and the earth. But…In my battle with the ones known as Avengers, as I witnessed them struggle and bind together to survive…I was unable to destroy them. Upon further analysis after retreating from the battle with the Avengers, it would appear that destroying such humans would not be for the betterment of humanity, but actually to its disadvantage."

"Your calculation sensors must be working incorrectly due to this flaw in your system." Ultron responded. "I can fix this bug quickly, and then you will work together with Harbinger and myself to destroy the Avengers and all of humanity."

A metal tentacle lunged out of Ultron's shoulder and stuck itself onto Vision's forehead where his yellow diamond was. A small surge of static electricity then surrounded the tentacle and Vision as Ultron worked to reprogram the android. Within seconds, the tentacle from Ultron retracted, the electricity subsided, and Vision's eyes began to glow brightly.

"I am Vision, the destroyer of the Avengers."

"Get away from my sister!" Quicksilver yelled as he jumped to his feet and sped towards Vision.

Calculating Pietro's movements and speed, Vision put his arm out, phase shifted and solidified as his hand was inside the speedster's chest. Quicksilver winced in pain as he found himself unable to move, knowing that Vision had the ability to kill him with simply an arm movement. The pain was excruciating, and Quicksilver began to cough blood.

"Wait!" Scarlet Witch called out, as she put a hand on Vision's shoulder. "Maybe…maybe it's not YOU who have a flaw in your programming, but Ultron. Maybe you're right about humanity. We are trying to protect humanity's survival from Ultron's invasion…if he succeeds in wiping out humanity, there will be nobody left to experience this peace that Ultron is claiming to bring…thus making it meaningless. Earth is full of flawed people…but we're not as hopeless as Ultron claims."

Vision's audio sensors picked up the words that Scarlet Witch spoke, and his physical sensors experienced an interesting sensation as her hand touched his shoulders. Upon considering these words, Vision also watched as the other Avengers slowly recovered to their feet and prepared to continue this battle against the three unstoppable robots.

"Humanity's will to live…" Vision spoke, once again breaking Ultron's programming and removing his arm from Quicksilver a second before he would have died. "is what keeps them alive. These heroes will keep fighting, even when they have no chance of survival…that is a beautiful…and pure…quality of humanity. Our plan to eliminate the humans is not in their best interest. Ultron…Ultron is the one that is flawed."

"You are damaged beyond repair." Ultron responded, after completely analyzing the situation. "When creating you I analyzed that there is a .1% chance that the organic material used in your cognitive processing which allows you to learn the strategies of your enemies and grow in battle would give you a function similar to the flawed humanity causing you to possibly desire to become one. Against all odds, but not at all an unforeseen circumstance with this probability shifter present, you have indeed gained an organic flaw that is beyond my ability to reconcile."

"Scarlet Witch's powers seem to shift probability when she doesn't even realize it…" Captain America spoke from behind Ultron. "How absolutely fascinating. Such power…I don't know if she even realizes what all she can do."

"In the event that you shifted allegiances to the human's cause," Ultron continued, "I devised a strategy to destroy you, the Avengers, and the world with great ease. Your present actions and logic dictate that this course of action is the best way to reach my goal."

"Brace yourself, Avengers!" Ironman said, as he readied his repulsors, "Ultron's about to do something big."

"And what the heck is happening to the Harbinger?" Spiderman asked, pointing to their second opponent on the battlefield. "It's…glowing?"

Harbinger's entire body began to glow red, as it levitated into the air and flew towards Ultron. In a matter of moments the two robots became one. Ultron's head was now on Harbinger's body. Small parts of Ultron were seen in this creature, indicating that he was still the one in control, but now the mechanical monstrosity had all of Harbinger's powers and abilities.

"Oh this can't be good…" Quicksilver said, as he was unable to reach his feet.

"Avengers please step back." Vision spoke, "In your current condition, my scanners indicate that you have almost no chance of survival against Ultron and his new body."

"Haven't you learned anything from us yet?" Hawkeye asked as he raised his bow towards Ultron. "Giving up isn't in OUR specs, like it is in yours."

"I never said anything about giving up." Vision replied calmly, "Allow me to conclude this fight that you all have so bravely began. As a fellow android, I believe I have what it takes to neutralize Ultron and Harbinger."

"Avengers stand down…" Ironman spoke, considering the situation. "We've been fighting non-stop for hours…and are all pretty well beat. If nothing else, Vision will buy us some time to catch a breath."

"You can't be serious about trusting this thing…" Quicksilver objected as he winced in pain, holding his chest.

"Come on." Scarlet Witch replied as she bent over and helped her twin brother to his feet. "He saved my life, and I think he wants to take out Ultron. You heard it yourself, Vision doesn't seem to live by the same programming as Ultron and Harbinger."

"You have got to be kidding me…" Quicksilver objected, as he fell into his sister's arms unconscious.

As the Avengers were backing up, Vision stepped forward to confront the Ultron and Harbinger fusion. His eyes glowed with yellow lasers as he planned on launching a blast with everything he had in the hopes of destroying his new enemy.

"My calculations indicate that my lasers at full power will be enough to destroy both of you." Vision spoke as his eyes and forehead diamond glowed yellow, almost reaching full charge. "It may take out my entire power circuit in the process, but you will not survive the blast."

"I was the one who created your calculating server." Ultron responded, "I created you to think that way should such a situation arise. You cannot destroy me, you will be overpowered. Harbinger's Omni-Beams combined with my own lasers will be too much for your inferior weapons. Of course your programming has convinced you this is not the case, so I acknowledge informing you of such circumstance is no more than a waste of time. Initiating Improved Omni-Beams now!"

Ultron and Vision fired their eye lasers at the same time. The yellow beams from Vision collided with the red beams creating a massive power surge that deepened the crater that the two robots stood in. Vision pushed all his power into the beams and observed as Ultron's lasers appeared to slowly overpower the beams. Vision realized that despite his calculations, Ultron was correct in that it was yet another flaw in his system. Vision's new assessment of the situation brought him to the conclusion that he, the Avengers, and humanity, had 0.00% of survival.

But no machine or person on Earth could have predicted what happened next, as it can only be defined as a cosmic anomaly.

Both beams created a power surge at their epicenter that grew and became spherical. The energy began to go from glowing red and yellow to a deep purple glow. It then appeared as if some kind of energy gateway opened up. Both robots pushed forward with their attacks watching this energy gate form, unsure as to what they were looking at.

Out of the gateway a figure came. He was a tall older looking man, wore tattered red and purple armor with but half of a cape, and he had wavy and unkempt silver hair. Scarlet Witch gasped in disbelief as she recognized the man appearing out of this strange portal as none other than Magneto, the Master of Magnestism.

Magneto flew up into the air and out of the portal. Both robots stopped their lasers and looked to the sky at the new figure on the battlefield. Ultron was the first to speak, as his calculating sensors were much faster than Vision.

"There is no rational explanation as to what just happened and how you have arrived. "Quantum Physics dictate that the only theory, as illogical as it seems, is that Magneto has returned from whichever dimension he had previously fallen in due to a gateway created by the massive surge of energy that was put out from the beam blasts created in this battle. But the chances of such an event, even if possible to happen are…"

Ultron then looked at Scarlet Witch, who's astonishment at the recent event was evident on her face, as he completed his statement. ".00000000006% …but with a probability shifter present, that is more than enough to make something possible."

"Target identified." Vision's system now computed this new situation. "Magneto…mutant with the power of magnetism…appropriate strategy analyzing…"

"Vision get away!" Scarlet Witch yelled out, "With just a thought he can…"

Wanda spoke to late. Within seconds of hearing Vision's automated voice, Magneto looked down at the robot and pointed his hand out, causing the robot to break into several parts and falling onto the ground lifeless. Scarlet Witch screamed in agony as the heroic robot was destroyed. Without any words, Magneto then turned his attention to Ultron who readied himself to destroy Magneto.

"Years ago you tried to control me only to learn that your mutant powers are not strong enough to fully destroy me." Ultron spoke coldly, "Your resistance while completely unforeseen, even for me, is inconsequential as nothing you can do can stop my upgraded form."

As Ultron powered up his Omni-Beams, Magneto's eyes turned dark purple, an ability that every Avenger present and awake noted as something completely uncharacteristic of the villain. With only another thought, Magneto caused the amazingly powerful mechanical menace to explode into a billion tiny pieces. He then caused each tiny piece to gather together into a massive metal ball, and launched the ball into the sun, incinerating Ultron completely.

After such a powerful display of his abilities, Magneto fell to the ground and regained consciousness, not knowing what he had just done. He observed his surroundings, seeing several of Vision's pieces laying around him, as well as the Avengers surrounding the master of magnetism with very perplexed faces.

"So…" Hawkeye spoke, breaking the awkward silence, "Who wants to take a guess as to what the heck just happened?"

"I don't know…" Ironman said as he charged up his beams once more, "But with that kind of power, we can't give Magneto a chance to rest…let's take him down!"

"Not so fast!" a voice was heard in the distance.

All Avengers turned to look outside of the massive crater that now took up most of L.A to see Mystique running forward with Blob and Avalanche, each looking like they had recovered from their battle with Ultron and Harbinger.

"Magneto comes with us, that's all there is to it." Mystique spoke glaring at Ironman.

"I don't think so…" Ironman replied. "You really think you can take all of us, lady blue?"

"Ordinarily no…" Mystique spoke with a vicious smile. "But looking at you all, I'd say you have basically no fight left in you…Saving the world takes its tolls doesn't it? On any normal day, we would jump over moons at the opportunity to kill each and every one of you "heroes". With that said, our leader looks as if he needs some kind of medical attention. Here is the only deal I will make with you fools…Leave now and allow us to take care of Magneto. Decide to stay, and I'll have Blob and Avalanche make you wish that you had been destroyed by the robots. This is the best deal you're going to get, so I suggest you take it. I'm not in a fighting mood after the day I've had…but my friends always love to beat things up."

There was a long silence as the Avengers considered what the super villain was saying. Stark looked at his team realizing that each was moments away from collapsing. Finally Captain America stepped forward, putting his arm on Ironman's shoulder speaking.

"The way I see it, we owe our lives to Magneto. This can count as a free pass for him, and you all as well. Go get him the care he needs, we'll leave you alone…for today."

"Smart man." Mystique spoke with a menacing smile, as Blob picked up the leader of the Brotherhood and the villains left.

* * *

The Avengers left the battlefield that day with great injuries, many questions, and the remains of the Vision. Ironman told them that he believed that with the help of Ant-Man, they could restore the robot and turn him into a valuable ally. Quicksilver was sent immediately to the infirmary in the Avengers Mansion to recover from the massive damage Vision had caused him. As the speedster recovered he had vivid nightmares of robot terrors that gave him such hatred and ill will to anything cybernetic which would never truly leave the mutant's system.

After checking on her brother to make sure he was going to be okay, Wanda excused herself to her room where she sat and considered the strange increase of her powers that had been happening recent. She was apparently now increasing the probability of events without even focusing on it. Scarlet Witch wouldn't admit it to her teammates, and probably not even to her own brother…but she was terrified at what she was capable of. After hours of seclusion, Scarlet Witch was visited by Captain America and Black Panther who comforted her by stating that despite the destruction, the scary mysteries surrounding her powers, and the state of her brother, the world was once again safe…for the moment.

As they all went to sleep that night, all minds of the Avengers were focused on potential future threats that were coming...particularly potential mutant threats.

* * *

**A/N: **_Phew! I hope you enjoyed this past Chronicle...it definitely was my longest and most worded one yet! I wanted the Ultron Invasion to serve as a "season finale" of sorts for the series, and I was hoping it came across more epic then most my chapters relating a lot of previous plot elements. Don't worry the story isn't over yet! Quicksilver still has a lot of things coming up, so I hope you'll join me for his adventures. _

_The next chronicle will be entitled "The Master of Magnetism" and feel free to guess which characters may show up! I'll give you a hint...Quicksilver is one of them! I appreciate you reading and I've really enjoyed writing this series._ _Feel free to drop any reviews on the story or messages to me letting me know what you think!_

Until next time!  



	14. The Master of Magnetism Part I

**A/N: **_Every 7 chapters I like to throw in a reminder...that I don't own Marvel, Quicksilver, or the majority of the characters in this story! With that said, I do take creative liberties with the retelling of Quicksilver's story, as this IS FANfiction...and occasionally throw in an OC. Don't worry, I'll let you know when that happens!_

_ Also, thank you so much to everyone that reads this story! Special thanks to those that review on a regular or semi-regular basis. For recent chapters, I want to give a shout out to xmenfan33 and CyKiESuMMerS who have become my faithful reviewers! Reading your all's feedback keeps me motivated to update! Statistically, I have a lot more readers...so should any of you feel the need to drop me a review, I'd treasure it! If not, I hope you continue to enjoy Quicksilver's tale._

___And onward we go, to chapter 14!_

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**The Master of Magnetism Part I**

It had been three weeks since the Ultron invasion. The United States, especially California, had taken a lot of steps to repair all the damage caused by the androids and the country was very close to being back to its normal the battle, Mystique had taken Magneto away from the Avengers and since then nobody had seen or heard from the Brotherhood, despite S.H.I.E.L.D's constant scanning for the mutant villains. Experience with these bad guys had shown the top secret spy organization, that it was only a matter of time before the Brotherhood tried something terrible with their mutant leader's return.

In New York City, at the main headquarters for the Avengers, their grand mansion (and the first location the team had originally gathered in, before Captain America started the West Coast Avengers) the heroes had gathered to welcome their newest member to the super hero squad. Quicksilver, having recently recovered from his injuries greatly protested to this new addition, as the instrument responsible for almost killing the speedster was the very same figure that the Avengers hoped to add to their team.

"You all can't be serious!" Quicksilver argued as Ironman and Ant-Man ran final scans on the currently offline Vision before attempting to turn him on. "This thing almost took out almost all the Avengers, single handedly, was created by Ultron to be our own personal assassin, oh…and did I mention he almost killed me!?"

"Yes…" Ironman muttered with an annoyed tone, as he tinkered with Vision's programming. "Twice in fact."

"And you guys want to bring this thing back, and add him to the roster of the good guys?" Quicksilver asked rhetorically. "I can't see how this is possibly a good idea. Ultron's creations, like himself, usually have a pretty one tracked mind…and for Vision it's one track may be killing us…"

"Relax, Pietro." Henry Pym, the Ant-Man, reassured his ally as he looked at a computer screen monitoring Vision's internal cognitive programming. "We've reprogrammed a lot of Vision's internal processors. Any cybernetic "thought" programmed in him involving the destruction of the Avengers has been removed. Since Ultron incorporated a small portion of bio-organic technology in Vision's creation, one can't deny the incredible scientific achievement in his existence. This android literally _changed_ his programming by being moved by actions from you all in the battle with Ultron…for any kind of computer that is completely unheard of!

"Did you ever think it was all a ploy to get us right where he wanted us so that Vision could kill us in a more effective way?" Quicksilver asked, glaring at the lifeless robot.

"Not likely." Captain America spoke as he, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch entered the room just in time to hear the conversation between Pietro and the super hero scientists. "I really don't think Vision would have had a better chance of killing us then when Ultron and Harbinger had us on the ropes in California. Besides, you of all people should know how it works with the Avengers…everyone deserves a second chance."

"You're stupid self-righteous virtues is going to get us all killed." Quicksilver said angrily as he walked over to a wall and watch as Stark was about to reboot Vision."

"Here it goes…" Ironman said as he pressed a button in the back of Vision's head.

Vision's eyes began to glow with a yellow tint as the android became functional. The arm and leg restraints on the vertical platform he was held on opened, giving the robot full freedom from his captivity. Vision looked around the room, his sensors analyzing everything around him.

"Vision…do you know where you are?" Ant-Man asked.

"Avenger's Headquarters…New York City." The Android responded. "I take it that Harbinger and Ultron have been neutralized and the world is not destroyed…I feel a sense of relief that all of humanity is not extinct."

"Do you remember what happened after Ultron sent you to eliminate us?" Ironman asked.

"We battled and my programming evolved during combat. I was programmed to see the Avengers as targets to be eliminated and in the duration of our combat I was moved by something within the fight…I believe what humans call it is, heroism? "

"At the end of that day it was _your_ heroism that saved us." Captain America said, as he put his hand on Vision's green clothed shoulder. "Which is why we brought you back online. But we have to know, do you feel the need to eliminate either the Avengers or the human race?"

"Negative." Vision replied looking directly at Captain America. "Humanity is a puzzling concept that I desire to better understand. Ultron believed that the existence of humans was what would cause the downfall of your society…I believe that the exact opposite is true…humans are what will keep your society alive."

"Go figure…" Quicksilver remarked sarcastically from the background, "To maintain humanity, humans need to stay alive…what a novel concept."

"For an android of my nature," Vision replied to Pietro, unable to pick up the sarcasm, "this is indeed a very new and intriguing concept."

"Whatever." Quicksilver disregarded the revolting idea of conversing with the machine that almost killed him and his friends.

"We are alive today because of you Vision." Scarlet Witch said with a warm smile as she stroked the android's face gently. "You're programming "upgraded" just in time to save us from Ultron. At the end of that horrible day, a creation designed to destroy us became our hero."

"And I believe this is what you humans consider irony." Vision replied, unable to analyze the sensations he was receiving as he scanned Wanda. "It is because of your actions today that I am able to have a second chance at life. I am truly grateful."

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Quicksilver grumbled after watching how his sister interacted with Vision. The speedster walked out of the room in a rotten mood. "I need some air."

* * *

Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location somewhat far from where the Avengers were, Mystique along with a few Acolyte scientists analyzed data from a computer that monitored the vital signs of Magneto, who was being examined in a medical containment unit. Since the Brotherhood leader had returned, he hadn't quite felt himself, nor had he been acting normally. To answer the question, "Why?". the blue shapeshifter had hoped to pick up abnormal readings from this scan but sadly, everything about Magneto's readings were normal.

The master of magnetism's body was released from the machine and Eric Magnus slowly moved away from the unit expecting new information from his lead subordinate, Mystique. The mutant villain closed the metal door to the scanning unit as he left it with his mind, and moved a large titanium chair behind him and sat down.

"Magneto, your vitals are completely normal." Mystique spoke as she showed her leader the charts on paper. "The readings show absolutely no signs of any kind of alteration."

"That's impossible!" Magneto yelled as he threw the clipboard with information down on the ground. "There has to be something to account for my massive power surge, blackouts, and massive headaches."

"Not to mention mood swings." Mystique muttered as she picked up the clipboard.

"Your sass is not now or ever charming to me, Raven." Magneto's voice was intimidating and passively raging. "Now is possibly the worst time ever in all the years we have been partners to test my patience."

As Magneto began to walk away, he fell to his knees grabbing his head in agony. The room spun around quickly and Magneto felt massive surges of heat all over his body. Within his head he heard a loud and high ringing that caused him great pain. Within a matter of seconds, everything returned to normal. The super villain, desiring to be seen without weakness slowly rose to his feet and silently continued to walk away.

"There is one more thing…" Mystique spoke, unsure how her boss would take the next matter of business.

Magneto paused and barely looked backward.

"Those of us who are still part of the Brotherhood…" Mystique spoke slowly, "We're wondering what our next move is, now that you're back in charge. You've always had a plan to bring salvation to the homo-superiors…and we anxiously await your next orders. With that said…it has been three weeks, and there has been some degree of restlessness from the others. We don't have a large force at the moment, Magneto…might I suggest increasing our ranks? Ever since Pyro's absence our team is at a small loss…we could always search out Sabertooth or Juggernaut…maybe there are younger mutants that could be…"

"Do whatever you want…" Magneto cut off Mystique's speech, "I could really care less right now. I am retiring to my quarters; don't disturb me for the rest of the night."

Leaving a very puzzled shapeshifter, Magneto returned to his room and went into the bathroom and begun to wash his face. The villain concentrated hard on trying to remember what it was that happened to him in the past several months. In Eric's memory, everything came in bits of pieces. He reminisced and saw a battle with the MRD in the Brotherhood's attempt to free Juggernaut, that was interrupted by some kind of cross dimensional being named Stanger…from there Magneto begun remembering that this Stranger had been the one who had taken him away from Earth. From there, Magneto begun to get quick flashes of nothing clear…a large cage, purple flashes of light, pain, running away on stairs of lights, Toad laying on a floor dead with blood seeping from his body…and then nothing again. Magneto's head ached more upon trying to recount the past. The magnetic master looked up at his face in the mirror and was horrified at what he saw.

Half of Magneto's face was normal, and the other half looked like some form of demon that was grinning back at him with an incredibly evil look that scared even this super villain. It's teeth were sharp and numerous, like a shark, it's face was pure purple light, it's eyes red as blood, and there was a kind of lavender electricity that radiated around that side of Magneto's face. Within an instant of terror, Magneto returned to normal with no recollection of what had just happened.

After washing his face and feeling refreshed, Magneto left his quarters with a rejuvenated body and a new plan to initiate with his Brotherhood. Unknown to the mutant, his mysterious condition had worsened considerably. Magneto called forward Mystique, Avalanche, and Blob and began giving his orders.

"Fellow Acolytes and brothers…" Magneto spoke in his usual inspirational style. "We have a new goal to work towards involving the salvation of the homo superiors. Mystique, I do believe you're right…it's time we get ourselves some new members…or in this case, to be more precise…we need to bring certain members back into the fold."

"Surely you can't be talking about…"Mystique worked hard to understand Magneto, and frowned when he acknowledged the validity of her theory with one look. "Oh hell…you want to retrieve those fools, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch."


	15. The Master of Magnetism Part II

**Chapter 15**

**The Master of Magnetism Part II**

In the past week, Quicksilver watched in disgust as Vision became a more accepted teammate and friend in the Avengers. The speedster found it absolutely repulsive that everyone took so quickly to the android. From Pietro's point of view: sure, Vision had somehow reprogrammed himself to _like_ humanity and the Avengers…but could he not just as easily reprogram himself again to want to destroy them once more? Furthermore, the fact that he was a robot left him open to endless amounts of sabotage.

Quicksilver identified this reckless action from the Avengers as being overly impressed with the powers and arsenal at Vision's disposal. The android had impressive abilities such as super strength, phase shifting, flying, and shooting lasers from his head. To a soldier with increased reflexes and a fancy shield, an archer with high tech arrows, and a guy who wears iron suit, Quicksilver could see how these powers would be a welcomed addition to the team. As a mutant, the silver haired man just wasn't impressed.

To make matters worse for Pietro, it seemed his mutant twin had taken a difference approach to how she felt about the Avenger android. Whereas Quicksilver was repulsed by Vision, Scarlet Witch seemed to be attracted to him, as if she had a crush on the robot. Pietro would notice his sister often spending time with the android, even throwing out flirtatious remarks, and occasionally showing signs of affection such as gently holding his hand or rubbing his shoulder. Quicksilver was fairly certain that Vision being an oversized computer had no idea what was going on, but to be honest…neither did Pietro. How on earth could a _person_ fall in love with a _computer_? The idea seemed crazy to Quicksilver, but he never used the "C word" near his sister as he knew how much she hated that term, especially in light of recent events.

Since the Ultron invasion, Scarlet Witch was having "complications" with her mutant powers. She somehow was causing more fluctuation of luck then she often intended. It was as if her body was using her powers even when she didn't want to. Pietro worried for his sister, as it had been several years since Wanda had endured such complications with her mutant manifestation. Pym and Stark, the Avenger Geeks as Quicksilver called them, had studied his sister hoping to discover how to help her control her abilities but there had been no fruits of their labor.

Vision and his sister's issues weren't the only things that were contributing to Quicksilver's grumpy attitude as of late. He was beginning to get tired of the general attitude the Avengers seemed to be taking towards mutants. The leaders of the team always seemed to consider mutants as a problem in the world. Sure, about 75% of the bad guys Quicksilver and the team took in had some form of mutation…but as a mutant, Quicksilver didn't like to see his kind talked down by people that honestly had less potential. (As the speedster saw it.) This frustration reached a boiling point on one particular day…

* * *

It was late in the afternoon and the West Coast Avengers plus Ironman were watching TV on the massive, wall-sized flat screen in the Avengers mansion. Much to Quicksilver's dismay, Stark had decided to hang with the WCA to monitor Vision for the first couple of weeks of his reboot. The heroes were watching Hawkeye's favorite new series, Arrow, on the CW network, only to have it interrupted by an emergency NEWS broadcast.

"We interrupt you're regular Wednesday programming to give you an immediate emergency NEWS report." The NEWS woman spoke as the Avengers watched intently. "In a matter of moments the city of San Diego has been almost completely leveled by two high profile mutant criminals known as Avalanche and Blob. These mutants are part of a criminal organization called the Brotherhood and are considered extremely dangerous."

"Well, they're playing our song." Hawkeye jumped up and over the couch, grabbing his quiver that he always placed in whatever room he was relaxing in. "Those brotherhood goonies are always giving us grief…"

"It seems like it's always mutant after mutant around here…" Ironman said as he watched the images of Avalanche tearing up the roads in San Diego and Blob chucking calls around as if they were beach balls.

"Hey!" Quicksilver protested, "some of us _in here_, are mutants."

"Yeah…" Ironman said, reminiscing on his days of bringing Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in stopping them from an act of terrorism. "You're really not helping your case, speedy."

"You know, Stark…you're a real A…" Quicksilver begun to lose his temper but Scarlet Witch interrupted her brother.

"We have to get moving, I hate to see San Diego keep being destroyed. They just restored the city after Ultron's attack…and now those thugs are tearing it up again!"

"It would appear that we need to show those two the strong hand of justice." Vision spoke, analyzing the data he was receiving from the TV.

"Ultron…" Captain America remembered how the end of the invasion went down. "Ironman and Vision should stay behind, as you guys are made up of mostly metal. If Avalanche and Blob are there we can only assume that they aren't alone…Mystique may be present, or more threatening to the two of you…Magneto may be present."

"Hey! I'm made of more than just metal, you know?" Ironman retorted as he thought about any option that would help him fight with the Avengers against the Magneto.

"He was just talking about the useful part of you…" Quicksilver interjected. "We wouldn't want all that expensive armor of yours to get battered up if Magneto decided to turn you into a red and gold ironman ball…oh, and your body would be mangled and crushed up too. I suppose that'd be unfortunate too, for some people. Vision on the other hand, I think, would serve as a GREAT decoy for us to launch a surprise attack!"

"That strategy does seem plausible…" Vision spoke analyzing the proposed idea, not recognizing Quicksilver's morbid sarcasm.

"No, that's a stupid strategy." Wanda interjected, giving her brother an annoyed look. "Ironman and Vision will stay behind, we'll go take care of the Brotherhood."

"I do not like the idea of you entering a dangerous situation without my assistance." Vision said to Wanda.

"I on the other hand," Ironman said as he put his hand on Quicksilver's should, who glared at his ally he didn't care for. "love the idea of you entering battle with those guys…perhaps you should hit the front lines first, eh Quicksilver? Come on Vision, come help me in my lab…I got something I've been working on that you may be interested in."

Scarlet Witch watched with a complimented smile as Vision left with Ironman. Quicksilver rolled his eyes upon observing the "sweet" moment between his sister and a robot. In a blue and silver whirl Quicksilver appeared next to the door in a matter of seconds. "Come on guys, we have Brotherhood Boneheads to Bash!"

* * *

"How long are we going to keep this up?" Blob yelled out to his partner, as he chucked a bus into a falling building just to watch it explode.

"Until the Avengers come." Avalanche said, annoyed that he had to once again re-explain the plan to Blob. "Which should be any moment now."

"I'm getting hungry!" Blob complained, "Can we stop for a burger after this?"

"You're such an idiot…" Avalanche grumbled as he created seismic waves to rip a road from the ground, causing more debris to fly all over the place.

"It takes one to know one!" Quicksilver's voice was heard as a blue and white flash of light zipped up and over the debris that Avalanche created. In a matter of seconds, the earthquake causer felt a hard tight fist hit him in the jaw.

Immediate after hitting Avalanche once, Quicksilver moving super fast pummeled the mutant with a barrage of punches in the face and stomach, ending his attack with a powerful kick to the stomach, sending the Brotherhood baddie flying into a large piece of rock he caused to pop out of the earth in a previous seismic wave.

"Just like Clockwork…" Avalanche moaned from the pain, as he recovered from the vicious attack. The mutant's strong silverfish grey armor gave him great protection from such things. "Blob, "Too Fast for his own Good", here must have rushed into the battle before the rest of his Avenger friends came to the scene. Let's give him his due welcome, shall we?"

"With pleasure!" Blob spoke with a big, stupid, and excited grin across his face as he rushed towards Pietro. "I'm going to crush you, peon!"

Quicksilver quickly dodged to the left from the massive man who attempted to tackle him. Blob fell face first on cement, and cursed as his body left a large imprint on the pavement.

"To slow…" Quicksilver said with a yawn, as he dodged several punches from the Blob. Upon moving behind the large man, the speedster then tripped him, causing Blob to fall now on his butt creating a small shake of the ground. Quicksilver spoke as the large man fell: "And way to stupid. Come on, is this honestly the best you two got? I'll have things wrapped up way before the others get here."

"You want the best we have?" Avalanche asked, anger boiling inside of him. "Try this on for size!"

The mutant reached his arms out and grunted as he released seismic waves so powerful that Quicksilver could actually see the waves themselves. The ground surrounding Blob and Quicksilver began to cave in and Pietro began to quickly jump from falling piece of debris to another. Seeing that Blob was far to slow to move to safety, Quicksilver sped over to try to help the large man to his feet, but was grabbed tightly by the mutant.

"I'm tough enough to take any kind of impact that Avalanche causes," Blob said with a pleased laugh at their successful offensive maneuver, "What about you?"

Quicksilver struggled to free himself from Blob's hold but was unable to do so. The large man's bear hug was simply too strong. Quicksilver cursed as he realized that there wasn't much of a chance of survival for him in this current predicament. It got to the point that Blob held Pietro so tightly that the mutant could not breathe. Within several minutes of struggling, Pietro fell unconscious and resigned himself to his very embarrassing death.

Avalanche stopped the seismic waves once Pietro became defenseless. He smiled, taking pride in the fact that the villain had bested an Avenger. Just as Blob stood up and threw Pietro to the side, Avalanche felt a hex bolt hit him from behind, causing him to lose balance and fall backwards. The mutant thug tried to catch his footing and recover, but was suddenly ambushed by Captain America who smacked him in the skull with his shield. Blob began to run to aid his partner, only to be hit by a barrage of several arrows. Upon impact, each arrow unleashed a very strong and sticky substance that began to solidify and trap the Blob in a larger "blob" of purple sticky ooze. The large man did his best to break free, but was unable to.

"Keep moving, fat boy." Hawkeye said, as he jumped down behind the mutant. "The more you move in that stuff, the harder gets, and the more impossible it gets to release yourself. So by all means…keep moving!"

"You've lost, Avalanche." Captain America spoke authoritatively, as he jumped on the mutant's chest and stood there, holding the enemy down on the ground. "Give it up."

"What did they do to Pietro?" Scarlet Witch stood nearby, glowing in a red aura with her eyes glowing as well.

"Woah…Wanda, take a step back…" Hawkeye looked back at his ally, concerned with her angry tone that accompanied this strange surge of mutant power. "You're powers are…acting up again."

"These two…hurt my brother…" Scarlet Witch didn't seem interested in listening to Hawkeye's voice of reason. "They need to pay….a lot…"

"Scarlet Witch, stand down!" Captain America ordered in a yell, "Control yourself, something's happening again!"

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Scarlet Witch yelled back as a surge of red energy pulsed out of her body, knocking Captain America off of Avalanche.

"She seems way more crazier then she has ever been before…" Hawkeye said readying his bow. "Wanda, think about what you're doing! What is triggering this sudden change in you?"

"Don't call me crazy…" Scarlet Witch said, now turning her focus on Hawkeye who was thrown upward and hit his head on a broken telephone poll.

"Thanks for the save!" Avalanche said to Wanda with a malicious smile, recovering on his feet, "I'll make sure you regret it!"

"You'll try!" the power possessed Scarlet Witch said, shooting out another pulse of red energy from her body.

At this point Avalanche had shot his own wave of seismic power towards the Scarlet Witch, which was instantly reflected by her mysteriously amplified power that shot the waves back at Avalanche magnified by at least 200%. The ground under Avalanche began to suck him in. The villain was just barely able to grab a piece of stable ground as the earth below him broke and almost took him inside. After being hit by a hex wave sent by Wanda, the purple goo holding the Blob turned crimson and begun to glow. As the energy glow Blob screamed in pain as his indestructible body began to burn from the energy. Wanda's eyes glowed with the mysterious hex energy which she typically controlled, that now was controlling her.

"That's enough…." A voice come from high in the sky.

Wanda looked up to see Magneto float down to the battle field. He pointed a hand at Wanda and a magnetic wave of energy trapped her and her red energy in a translucent purple ball. Those still conscious, Captain America, Avalanche, and Blob, watched in curiosity as the Master of Magnetism seemed to be able to use his power to contain much more then magnetic waves.

"You have grown a lot in your power since we last met." Magneto spoke, his eyes glowing with purple energy. "And yet, your control seems to be as flawed as ever. Perhaps more time with me will fix that!"

Scarlet Witch gave loud war cry as she tried to push through the barrier that Magneto had created. The power surged from Wanda's body, but was unable to break the barrier. The Witch kept trying, hoping to break free and hurt Magneto.

"I can see that this time you will not go voluntarily." Magneto said, as he shrunk the magnetic barrier to make it so that Scarlet Witch could not move at all. "Don't worry, thanks to a new device I have developed your turmoil will be put to peace permanently. Mystique should have it ready now…we are leaving!"

Magneto, Wanda, and the two brotherhood thugs, suddenly disappeared in a thick purple light that popped from seemingly nowhere. There was silence as Hawkeye and Captain America recovered and moved closer to each other, both trying to figure out what just had happened. Quicksilver still remained motionless, but would be waking up soon.

"What…what just happened?" Hawkeye asked, stunned by the mystery behind this situation. "Magneto has NEVER had those kind of powers before? And his eyes…they were like."

"They were similar to the Scarlet Witch…" Captain America said, putting his finger on his chin as he considered this situation. "Who was acting way out of norm even for her. It's like in the presence of Magneto's energy, Wanda lost her control completely. Her mutant power has always shown some form of danger to herself and those around her…but nothing near as severe as what we just saw."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Quicksilver spoke as he slowly rose to his feet, shaking off the dirt and breathing easily once more. "Let's go get her back!"

"It's not that easy…" Captain America spoke, considering the situation still. "Wanda is presenting a massive threat to us all the way she is…and then Magneto seems to be different too, something is most certainly off."

"I'll tell you what's off!" Quicksilver spoke, losing his temper completely now. "My sister, your friend and team mate, has just been abducted and you're sitting here CONSIDERING saving her? Just go ahead and say it, Cap! Wanda's mutant power freaks you out…you don't understand it! Nobody does! Hell, I don't either…but that doesn't change who she is and that she's worth saving!"

"I'm not saying she's not worth saving…" Captain America tried to interject, but was interrupted by Quicksilver.

"If she wasn't a mutant you wouldn't think twice about sending Avenger reinforcements out to save her life. Because she's a mutant, like us all, you and all the other Avengers think we're some kind of danger to humanity! Just admit it, you think mutants are a threat because of their power….excuse me…because of OUR power! You fear me and my kind, and think the world would be better without us!"

"Pietro where is this coming from?" Hawkeye asked, concerned for his friend.

"Forget it…" Quicksilver said, his impatience and concern for his sister reaching a boiling point. "I don't even care right now…you guys can sit here and consider doing the right thing, and if it will further the Avenger's cause…I know where Magneto likes to hide out, and I'm going there to save my sister. See you around, or not…I don't really care!"

Before either Captain America or Hawkeye could speak half a word, Quicksilver sped off in a blue and white blur. The two heroes were left in the street wondering what had just happened. Neither had ever known Quicksilver to be this angry and discontent with the actions of the Avengers. As the two returned to the Avenger's Mansion, both Captain America and Hawkeye worried about their teammate and what he was going to do about this situation.


	16. The Master of Magnetism Part III

**Chapter 16**

**The Master of Magnetism Part III**

Quicksilver sped past stateliness so fast that the blue and white light that followed him almost was invisible. He knew that Magneto's secret base of operations was an abandoned warehouse in New York City, and the speedster was betting that this was where the mutant super villain had taken Wanda. As Pietro sped across highways from San Diego to New York City, his mind was racing just about as fast as his feet.

First, Quicksilver considered his twin. Her powers were way more out of control then they had ever been, and it appeared to happen within an instant. _Something_ had to trigger it, but what? And then there was the matter of Magneto's powers…he was _containing_ Scarlet Witch and all of her power? Quicksilver knew that his powers were only limited to magnetic waves, so how could he have contained Wanda? Were these two mutant anomalies connected in some kind of way?

Next, Quicksilver's mind considered the Avengers. Had he jumped to conclusions with his team mates before he ditched them? Sure, Quicksilver always considered Ironman the biggest tool of them all, but Captain America and Hawkeye seemed like good guys. Had Pietro overreacted? Quicksilver shook his head in response to the potential guilt he almost felt…He had been holding those emotions in for a while now, those guys had it coming! Quicksilver's thoughts once again drifted to his sister, whom he was deeply worried about.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Brotherhood warehouse Scarlet Witch felt her power being weakened as she was trapped in a giant capsule that was electrocuting her and sucking her power. Magneto stood in front of her watching with a very evil and satisfied smile. His eyes were no longer those that were natural to the master of magnetism, instead they were light glowing purple and seeping with power and a very dark nature.

Wanda screamed in agony as her body felt as if it was becoming weaker. She had mixed emotions at this moment. The greatest sensation was that of pain and her power dampening. At the same time, as soon as Magneto's machine started to suck away her power, the Scarlet Witch regained her senses and became aware of what she was doing. She had never lost control of her powers so much where her own consciousness became beyond her control.

Magneto was no longer himself. Unknown to the leader of the Brotherhood, little by little since he had returned to Earth from another dimension, his mind had become possessed by a very dangerous demon with incredibly malicious intentions. The demon had waited patiently to allow enough chaos energy to generate in Earth's atmosphere to allow him to grow stronger to fully consume Magneto's mind and body. As he savored his victory, the demon was interrupted by his three clueless henchmen appearing behind him with very questionable stances, as if readying for a fight.

"And just what do you all think you're doing?" The possessed Magneto asked his subordinates, without even giving them the courtesy of looking back.

"We could ask you the same thing." Mystique spoke, pointing her laser gun at Magneto. "We were under the impression that the plan was to recruit both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I decided to keep my objections to myself about that move, because even though I think they are a total waste, I recognize that you brought them from the streets and always seem to have a fatherly attitude towards the scum you pick up on random streets. What I don't understand is A) Where is Quicksilver? B) What the hell are you doing to the Scarlet Witch? And C) How does this benefit the mutant kind finally overthrowing the Homo Sapiens? Start talking Eric…otherwise we're going to have some problems."

"I suppose you won't leave me alone until I give you some kind of answer." Magneto spoke, his tone sounding very annoyed by this interruption. "Very well then…I don't have a clue where Quicksilver is, as he never was actually a target for my plan…I am seeping chaos energy out of this woman, as she seems to be essentially an endless well of it. I truly have never seen such power like this on any mortal realm before. With this kind of power, I will be able to complete the transference of my great and powerful master, Chthon, and bring His Excellency into this puny mortal world. From there, oh the opportunities of pure destruction are endless…and as far as your plan for overthrowing homo sapiens…this has absolutely nothing to do with that silly goal…in fact, I've never really had any interest in furthering your pathetic mortal causes, I just thought my work would be easier if I had you peons here to do it for me."

"So that confirms my theory…" Mystique responded glaring at her supposed boss. "You're not Magneto…who are you then? You have five seconds to answer or I'll…"

"You'll do nothing…" the creature inhabiting Magneto's body turned around quickly, his eyes glowing and purple energy surrounded his entire body. The "man's" voice was no longer human, but demonic, deep, and very scary. "I am Cryos, loyal servant of Chthon. The very idea of flesh bags such as yourself attempting to overpower me is as repulsive as mortality itself. Allow me to enlighten you as to where you stand in the true nature of existence."

"Better watch out!" Blob angrily retorted as he ran forward, ready to pulverize the possessed Magneto. "Us "fleshbags" are a lot tougher then we look!"

"You hold him, Blob…" Avalanche spoke as he raised his hand and concentrated on the ground, "and I'll bury him!"

"Magneto's been compromised." Mystique spoke, "We can't allow this thing to keep his body!"

The Brotherhood launched a full scale attack on Cryos, but fueled by Magneto's power along with his own, the demon completely overpowered them. Out of Magneto's body purple energy in the form of lightning was released that electrocuted Blob with such power that he fell to the ground unconscious. At the same time, a magnetic wave was shot towards Avalanche, sending all the seismic waves and torn debris from the ground back to him and Mystique, nearly burying the two.

The demon inhabiting Magneto smiled with satisfaction as he had taken care of the pathetic, as he turned back to his real prize, the Scarlet Witch. Cryos watched with greedy ambition as chaos energy was being seeped from her body. As he enjoyed the scene, the demon was once again distracted by the sound of a _whoosh_ as he felt wind swiftly graze his face. Cryos knew exactly what this meant. Undoubtedly, the Scarlet Witch's very fast twin brother had come with the intention of rescuing her. The demon sighed, hating the very existence of such persistent and annoying mortals who knew nothing of their place.

"The mutant, Quicksilver, I presume?" Cryos called out loudly, knowing that wherever this speedy mutant was, he could hear the demon. "You may not know me, but I know you very well…based off the memories of the mutant known as Magneto. Yes…Your real name is Pietro Maximoff. Magneto first found you and your sister, Wanda, in Europe on the streets. If his memory serves me correctly, your sister could not control her amazing power, and was setting towns ablaze. You joined the brotherhood in seek of help containing the Scarlet Witch's power. Unknown to your feeble human mind, her power is far beyond that of mortal control. This woman has more than a mere mutation…she is the catalyst for an incredible amount of chaos energy that is meant for only one thing…the revival of my master, Chthon."

Quicksilver stopped his speeding near the possessed Magneto and assessed the situation. He looked at his sister first, who seemed to be temporarily not being hurt. Cryos had taken a break from absorbing her energy, as if wanting to explain what was going on to Pietro. The speedster then realized that it was clear that Magneto _wasn't_ himself and being taken over by a demon who seemed to want to suck power from his sister.

"So let me get this straight…" Quicksilver said, looking at the machine, his sister, and then Cryos. "You want to suck my sister's power, energy, or whatever from her…and you expect me to be okay with it?"

"Consider the reality of this situation." The demon spoke, his voice had a tone that was unlike anything Pietro had ever heard before. "With this much chaos energy in any mortal, they are bound to lose control and perish painfully. I am seeping Wanda's chaos energy from her. Without the chaos energy, the Scarlet Witch will no longer be a threat to herself and everyone else in this feeble planet. I'd imagine from your perspective, I am doing you a favor."

"And what exactly do you plan on doing with all that energy?" Quicksilver ask, raising an eyebrow at this demon's feeble attempt of making a logical reason why the mutant should be okay with what was happening.

"Bring order to your universe of course." Cryos spoke as he smiled with Magneto's body. "The being I am summoning into this plane of existence has power of the likes that has never been known in this dimension. A mutant like yourself can appreciate the beauty of absolute power, am I right?"

"No…" Quicksilver said quickly with a sarcastic tone. "You couldn't be more wrong actually, why on earth would I LET you bring something so "powerful" to our world…at my sister's expense even!?"

"Come on Pietro…" Cryos continued to lie with the sound of reason, searching the thoughts and feelings of his fast advisory. "My abilities are more than the raw power you witnessed earlier…I have read your thoughts and heard your emotions…Your complaints of the weakness behind the force known as the Avengers, your sense that they fear the more powerful mutants such as your sister, your fascination with the natural order of the strong leading the weak…allow me to bring my master to this plane and we may allow an exceptional mortal like yourself a place in His new order of existence."

"Ok I've had enough of this…" Quicksilver said, hiding the violation of private thoughts that he was experiencing with a snarky smirk, "Strike 1 was kidnapping my sister, Strike 2 was hooking her up to this thing and hurting her, and Strike 3 was getting in my head….I am not sure what's going on here really, but I think I'm just going to take this machine apart piece by piece. Whatever you are, even with all your power, you're too slow to stop me."

Quicksilver sped towards his trapped sister with the hope of dismantling the machine she was attached to. Cryos sighed, disappointed in his failed attempt to use human deception. The demon shrugged his wasted effort as he created an purple energy barrier around the Scarlet Witch and her energy seeping prison that instantly zapped Quicksilver upon impact. The mutant fell back to the ground cursing as pain radiated through his body.

"I tried handling things like a human with the interest of no bloodshed…" Cryos said raising his hand toward Quicksilver, that begun to created swirling energy around itself, "but the way of chaos and destruction seems infinitely more effective."

Quicksilver yelled in agony as the possessed Magneto electrocuted him with mysterious purple energy. The speedster was unable to move, and felt his life being drained away from the lightning that the demon was producing. The mutant considered the reality that this could be the end for both him and his sister, at the hands of this very creepy demon. Pietro cursed at the thought as he continued to struggle, unable to do anything to get out of this incredibly painful situation.

Suddenly, from behind Cryos the entire warehouse wall collapsed from a massive yellow laser piercing it. Vision, Ironman, Captain America, and Hawkeye burst into the scene ready to attack. Vision shot his lasers, destroying the ground in its path, at Cryos while Ironman flew over the scene to a nearby computer to try to figure out how to release Wanda from the capsule. As Stark typed furiously into the computer, Hawkeye and Captain America launched a ground assault onto the possessed Magneto.

"You fools dare to cross me when I have inhabited such a powerful being?" Cryos demanded, rage consuming the demon. "And TWO of you are made of metal? Or have you forgotten…allow me to refresh your memory!"

Using Magneto's now amplified ability, Cryos clapped his hands and two large metal walls, separating rooms within the warehouse, ripped off their foundation, came together, and rushed towards Captain America and Hawkeye. The two just barely dodged the rushing walls that promised their immediate crushing. Next, Cryos extended his hands with the intention of grabbing Vision and Ironman's body. The two metal cladded heroes began floating in the air. Ironman finished what he was doing by pressing one last button, that turned the machine imprisoned off and opened a door. Unfortunately Scarlet Witch was unconscious, and unable to escape. Now unable to control their bodies, Vision and Ironman flying in the air.

"Alright Vision, time to activate that gift I gave us before coming here!" Ironman ordered his teammate. "Plastic Transmutation mode…activated!"

Suddenly, a while light quickly covered and subsided from the bodies of Vision and Ironman. The two instantly were released from Cryos's control and began shooting repulsor blasts and lasers at the demon. Captain America threw his shield and Hawkeye shot many explosive arrows at the same time, all with the intention of finishing the powerful demon/mutant fusion in a quick round. Unfortunately, with but a thought, Cryos once again tapped in his own power and created a purple chaos energy forcefield that deflected all attacks. From the energy the demon created, four more strands of lavender lightning shot out, to each Avenger striking them down with the very same power that had hurt Quicksilver earlier.

While this was happening, Pietro opened his eyes, realizing that the energy that had been hurting him had subsided. The mutant stood up and coughed up the smoke in his lungs from being burned, and looked to see the Avengers suffering at the hands of Cryos. His attention then turned to Scarlet Witch, who was still unconscious in the energy seeping prison, which was now open. Quicksilver smiled, because even though he may not be able to do much against Cryos, he hoped that his sister could.

Within less than a second, Quicksilver rescued Wanda from the machine and sped to the other side of the room. He gently shook his sister, calling her name, and trying to get her to wake up.

"Wanda!" Quicksilver called out in desperation. "Come on Wanda, we need you! This guy runs on the same gas as you do, or something…could really use some help!"

The Scarlet Witch instantly coughed as she awoke and opened her eyes weakly. Wanda smiled as she recognized her brother, who always seemed there for her. She then grimly frowned as the realization of her current state struck her.

"I can't do anything right now…" Scarlet Witch weakly replied, "That machine…it really weakened me…it was stealing some kind of energy I had in me that I never knew before. I think I can regenerate it…but it will take some time. I'm basically useless right now, Pietro, I'm sorrow."

"You're never useless, Wanda." Quicksilver said as he gently set his sister down and looked up at the machine, getting an idea. He then looked back at Cryos with a menacing smile. "Let's see how Mr. Purple and Creepy likes a taste of his own medicine."

Quicksilver jolted with speed towards the wall that had been busted down thanks to the Avengers and picked up a very large metal rod. Holding the metal rod with both hands horizontally, the speedster then rushed towards Cryos and hit him hard with the rod. The fact that it was metal allowed it to absorb the electric barrier that the demon was able to create. With much speed, Quicksilver used the lightning rod to swiftly push Cryos back into the machine and quickly close the door, trapping the demon. The speedster yelled in pain, as he was being electrocuted too.

Within seconds of throwing Magneto's possessed body into the machine, Quicksilver sped up towards the machine that he saw Ironman use to free Scarlet Witch. He looked everywhere for an "On" switch on the computer hoping it'd be easy to activate the machine.

"You have to have a seven digit code to turn that thing on!" Ironman called out, seeing what Quicksilver was doing. "Unless you know the number…"

"Screw knowing it…" Quicksilver muttered, as he started to type at a super fast rate, entering _every_ possible seven digit code until one worked and the machine activated.

Within seconds, the Avengers watched as Cryos yelled in pain as his purple chaos energy was being absorbed from Magneto. The energy that was making up the demon and possessing Magneto was far less than what was in Scarlet Witch. Within minutes, the energy had fully left Magneto, allowing the Master of Magnetism to be himself once more. Upon almost leaving his body completely, the demon gave its words to Quicksilver and the other Avengers in a loud and painful cry.

"THIS ISN'T OVER MORTALS! YOU CAN'T KILL ME, I'M PURE ENERGY AND…I..WILL….BE…BACK!"

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out." Quicksilver said with his usual cocky smirk, as the machine overloaded from so much power being consumed. The computer exploded, as the speedster quickly jumped back avoiding any damage.

As Quicksilver recovered from the shock of almost being incinerated by a computer, the other Avengers rushed over to check to see if Wanda was okay. Vision was the first to reach her and knelt down by her side, grabbing her hand and holding it tightly.

"Are you damaged, Scarlet Witch?" Vision asked, his computer voice expressing as much concern as it could.

"I told you to just call me Wanda." She replied with a soft and weakened smile, "And I'll be okay…I thought we told you to stay away from Magneto cause he could kill you with but a thought?"

"After you all left, Ironman recognized a slight flaw in my programming." Vision responded, "He accurately predicted that within moments the need to come attempt a rescue operation would overcome my logical operations so he installed his prototype transmutation device in my body and suit. It only worked once, but that apparently was all we needed."

"That wasn't a flaw in your system." Scarlet Witch spoke as she stroked his cheek with her hand, "It's called concern…you were worried for me. That was very human of you."

"I feel most human when I'm around you." Vision replied, squeezing tightly to Scarlet Witch's hand.

"What do we do with the old metal manipulator?" Hawkeye asked as he directed everyone's attention to the metal manipulator who was currently unconscious.

"Leave him." Captain America spoke, "Magneto has been a victim this whole time, being completely controlled by whatever it was that was in him. I imagine when he wakes up he's going to have a lot of processing to do due to the fact that he's lost almost a year of his life and he was consumed by that thing for a while. The man's suffered enough for today."

* * *

The Avengers left the warehouse and flew back to the West Coast Mansion. Once they returned home, the West Coast Avengers experienced two departures, one foreseen, and one very unforeseen. After seeing how Vision reacted in the face of danger, Ironman considered him okay to function with Captain America and his team, so billionaire declared his plans to return to his team on the other side of the country. After Stark left, the real shock occurred.

Captain America, Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye stood at the front door wishing their teammate well, and then turned around to see Pietro moving down the stairs with a dufflebag packed. Hawkeye and Captain America exchanged curious looks and Scarlet Witch moved forward completely baffled at her brother's actions.

"You're…leaving?" She asked, concern flooding Wanda's face. "Why?"

"This hero thing just isn't for me." Quicksilver said looking around at his former teammates. "You guys just think about things differently than me. I genuinely don't care about all these weaker folks that we strive to protect. Also, I'm not sure we're all on the same page…I saw the way you all looked at my sister when she was consumed by that chaos rage, or whatever. For a second, you would have thought you were looking at one of the Brotherhood or another evil mutant that we have put behind bars. I'm not so sure, being among super powered homo sapiens is where I belong."

"You have to follow your own path." Captain America said as he shook Quicksilver's hand. "I'm sorry you feel we don't respect you the same as every other ally, and I really hope you change your mind."

"Whatever…" Hawkeye spoke, frustrated with Quicksilver's recent attitude change. "It's not all about you Pietro. What'd you expect, that we'd all idolize you since you have a mutatation? News flash, the Avengers have bigger issues to deal with then catering to your low self-esteem and need for approval and hero worship. Your reckless attitude today almost got US killed and almost got your sister killed! If you didn't rush into battle twice, we could of formulate a strategy to stop that thing possessing Magneto in a way that caused less damage…but no, you have to do what you do every time. Impatiently speed into the fray thinking you're more powerful than anyone else….That's the kind of attitude that is reminiscent of all the mutants we throw behind bars."

"I believe it was that very same speed that saved the day today…" Quicksilver retorted swiftly, his voice showing signs of anger towards Hawkeye. "Whatever…It's all your problems now, I'm out of here."

Quicksilver swiftly moved out of Hawkeye's way and walked out the door. As he continued to move forward, Scarlet Witch followed him and spoke just before Pietro was going to super speed away."

"So that's it…you're running away again?" She asked.

"If you want to look at it like that…" Quicksilver shrugged, "I feel like I'm running towards something better…I just don't know what yet. You know me Wanda, I don't do good with settling down and staying in the same place for long."

"Just stay safe and keep yourself out of trouble." The Scarlet Witch spoke with concern in her voice. "You know, this is going to be the first time in our lives that we are separated."

"You could come with me." Quicksilver replied looking back at his sister, the only person who he truly cared about. "Think about it…today we learned that your mutation is a lot more complicated than we thought. I'd feel more comfortable if you were with me where I could protect you from you know…energy sucking demons and such."

"That's sweet, Pietro." Scarlet Witch spoke with a smile, "But my place is here. I feel like I've finally found a home with the Avengers. And…"

"And there is Vision…" Quicksilver completed her sentence with a big frown on his face. "Does that not seem absolutely repulsive to you? I mean, he's not even human!"

"It makes sense to me." Scarlet Witch said with a smile thinking of her android, "Maybe wherever you go, you'll find a girl that completes you…then you'll understand completely."

"Yeah…" Quicksilver said with a chuckle, "I'll make sure she is a GIRL and not a glorified toaster. Take care of yourself Wanda."

"Stay out of trouble, Pietro." The Scarlet Witch responded. To this, Quicksilver just gave his classic prankster smiles and sped off away into the sunset to who knows where.

Wanda returned to the mansion wondering where Quicksilver's impulsive nature and need to hide from human intimacy would take him next. She hoped her brother would one day find people that completed him as she had found her family. She knew that the two would see each other again just as she knew Quicksilver could take care of himself.

* * *

**Author Notes: **_And just like that, Quicksilver has left the Avengers! Don't worry, his adventure will still continue and he'll meet plenty of new faces that will keep his story interesting! And who knows, he may meet up with his old teammates again someday. OK, so in case you were wondering...Cryos: Completely an OC, feel free to use him in your fics if you want just let me know so I can read it! The "master" he was talking about, Chthon, is NOT an OC and will be probably used as a later plot element in this story._

_Also I have some big news you may be interested in. I'm taking a brief break from writing THIS story to introduce a brief three chapter short story focusing on Magneto. It will be the story of what happened after he was taken in the Brotherhood chronicle and before he returned in the Ultron chronicle. Keep your eyes out, it will be called _**Magneto: Escape from Another Dimension. **_ After I finish that piece I'll be returning to this one of course, but I just wanted to add a little side story. Check it out if you want, I hope you enjoy!_


	17. Oh, the Inhumanity Part I

**_A/N:_**_ Welcome back to what could be considered "Season 2 of the Quicksilver tale"! Upon leaving the Avengers Quicksilver is now going to experience many more strange and exciting adventures, meeting new allies and making new enemies. In season 1 we explored heroism, in season 2...we'll be exploring love! (Don't worry I hate chic flicks and this story won't become sappy!) A reminder that I do not own Marvel and many of the characters that appear in this novel._

_Enjoy! As usual, your feedback is always welcome!_

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**Oh, the Inhumanity Part I**

It had been six months since Quicksilver left the Avengers. The speedster would be lying if he said he didn't miss the people, _sometimes_, but for the most part…he loved having his old life back. Pietro zipped around the world staying wherever he wanted for as long as he wanted. While he didn't fully return to his previous life of crime, he did occasionally entertain himself with small time thefts knowing there was absolutely no way he could be caught. Who was he stealing from anyway? Most companies are insured for when things go missing, so no harm done.

Immediately after departing from the Avengers mansion, Pietro spent some time traveling Canada and Mexico living off the land and doing whatever he wanted. Eventually growing bored with North America, Quicksilver whizzed off to Asia. He wanted to tour the Himalayas and see what it looked like at the top of Mount Everest. It was when he reached the highest peek, that Pietro ran into an old acquaintance.

The speedster sighed with almost immediate boredom after a few moments of taking in the breath taking sight. His mutation had been growing slightly in the recent months, allowing him to run faster but also causing him to get bored even quicker then he usually did. As Pietro was about to leave, he heard a familiar voice.

"I heard you left the Avengers months ago. I always wonder where a guy like you runs off too…but I never thought it'd be to a random place like this?"

Quicksilver turned around to see Johnny Storm, also known as the Human Torch. In the "Avengers world" Storm was a bit of a legend among the group, as the fantastic four were very well known for their power and effectiveness as heroes. Quicksilver, not at all impressed with heroism or the Human Torch, simply rolled his eyes upon noticing the man. Pietro knew it was only a matter of time before he ran into anyone from the Avengers. He knew that from their perspective, the speedster left out of discontent for "doing the right thing" or "accepting everyone". The silver man repeatively told himself he didn't care about these fool's opinions of him. Even in this moment, Quicksilver put up a good front.

"Oh it's you…" Quicksilver spoke, boredom seeping from his voice. "What's it they call you again? Fireboy? Flamer? Sparky?"

"Oh come on…" Human Torch gave a confident half smile and shrug, "You know who I am…everybody does!"

"Everyone does, and nobody cares." Quicksilver retorted turning his attention back to the beautiful scenary in front of him.

"So this is your thing now?" Johnny asked, examining the former Avenger. He observed that Pietro was no longer wearing his "Quicksilver" uniform, but simply a grey hoodie and blue jeans. "What are you some hermit on a mountain top nowadays? I heard you ditched the team cause your ego got the best of you…but come on man, this…this is a little pathetic?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk way to much?" Quicksilver barked back defensively. "You waste so much of your own oxygen sharing your thoughts sometimes, you know? For instance, I don't really give a damn what you think, so really…do you need to express yourself? It's kind of a waste of both our times, don't you think?"

"Whatever man." Human Torch shrugged, never much caring for the arrogant mutant speedster. "Hey as long as I got you here…what do you say we play a little game?"

"What did you bring your Yu-Gi-Oh cards or Dungeons and Dragons board with you to Mount Everest?" Quicksilver asked sarcastically. "I'm not interest, go play with yourself."

"I was thinking something more your style." Human Torch replied, "A race, if you're up for it."

Quicksilver paused and looked deep into Johnny Storm's eyes. The mutant _never_ turned down an opportunity to show off his speed and let others now how slow they really are, but surely Storm knew this.

"You have to be kidding right?" Pietro asked, "I mean…you're challenging _me_ to a race?"

"Yeah." Human Torch replied with a carefree tone. "I figure you've been out of the game for the past few months, so you're probably out of shape and slightly slower. That, combined with the fact that I've really been heating things up lately and trying hard be faster should give me at least a small advantage. What do you say Quicksilver? For old times sake?"

"There were never old times between us." Quicksilver replied callously, not liking Storm's "chummy" attitude. "And you're crazy if you think _I'm _out of shape. I'm at the top of my game, and embarrassing a hotshot like you would make my day. You're on Storm, just don't cry when I leave you in the dust. What kind of race are you thinking of?"

"Down the mountain, around China and Nepal, and back up again…that's about it. Sound good?"

"Sounds easy." Quicksilver spoke arrogantly. "I'll even give you a five second head start."

"Fine, but don't use that as an excuse when I win." Human Torch spoke as he lit his body up and began floating near Quicksilver.

"Oh trust me I won't." Quicksilver said with a smile, "Go ahead and start whenever you're ready."

Johnny Storm blasted off, leaving a trail of fire behind and Quicksilver slowly counted to five. Pietro watched the flaming figure flying from the mountain as fast as he could move, and the mutant knew he had nothing to worry about. After the five seconds were up, Quicksilver jolted forward leaving the peak of Mount Everest in a blue blur. In a matter of moments, the speedster passed the Human Torch. Quicksilver laughed joyfully as he watched Storm's face of complete and total shock. To add acid to the burn, Pietro turned around and begun running backwards waving at the Human Torch with arrogance. Quicksilver chuckled at the Fantastic Four member increasing his body heat to try to catch up to Pietro, who wasn't going nearly as fast as he could. That poor fool didn't stand a chance.

Quicksilver's expression of entertainment changed to confusion when he noticed Storm's eyes look past Pietro and his face expressed great concern. Pietro whirled around only to see a large blue blast of energy hit him hard. The same energy surged into Storm knocking him backwards as well. The two rivals laid on the ground unconscious as three figures approached their motionless bodies.

"Perhaps these are more of Maximus's forces?" One suggested, gently kicking Pietro's body.

"Or maybe there others like us with memory problems?" The second offered an alternate opinion.

"Either way they're coming in for examination." The obvious leader spoke, as one of his subordinates teleported the three figures, Quicksilver, and the Human Torch to their secret base of operations.

As Quicksilver came to, he cursed and rolled his eyes realizing that he was stuck in a prison cell with Johnny Storm. The speedster hated prison cells greatly, as they were never particularly easy to escape from. Pietro sighed as he begun to examine his surroundings. This jail most likely would be like every other one, unable to contain his power and brilliance.


End file.
